210 Lieut. J, R. H. MacFarlane on Birds 



St. PauFs Rocks, in the Atlantic, and is almost as inacces- 

 sible, being a small cluster of low black rocks, over which 

 the sea is generally breaking. As on this occasion the swell 

 was comparatively slight, a boat was sent and a landing 

 effected, but not without difficulty. Anous stolidus, Gygis 

 Candida, and Fregata aquila were found breeding, and from 

 an egg of the first I extracted a young bird of such a size, 

 that it seemed a wonder how the shell ever contained it ; so, 

 as it could not possibly have been put back again, I preserved 

 it in spirit, and I believe it is now in the possession of Mr. 

 Beddard, Prosector to the Zoological Society of London. To 

 find these birds breeding in this latitude, at this time of the 

 year, upsets one's ideas of seasons. 



Innumerable sharks were round the ship, and some curious 

 bright-coloured fishes were killed by exploding a small charge 

 of gun-cotton. The sailor seems always to be imbued with a 

 deadly hatred against the shark, and, as a rule, directly one 

 is reported in the vicinity of the ship, the shark -hook and 

 piece of pork soon make their appearance ; but the officer 

 responsible for the cleanliness of the ship seldom sees the 

 force of the quarter-deck being turned into a shambles. So 

 at this island we instituted a plan which satisfied the hatred 

 on the one side without interfering with the purity of the 

 decks. The hooked fish being run up under the countei', was 

 secured with a running bowline, and disembowelled by a 

 sailor sent down over the side, then lowered until about one 

 half in the water, when the blood and offal soon brought 

 scores of his old friends round, but not in a very friendly 

 spirit. Tearing and worrying at their defunct chum, they 

 threw prudence to the winds, and necessarily exposing them- 

 selves to get at the parts out of water, became easy shots for 

 the rifle ; and as shark after shark floated astern, a cannibal 

 festival, hitherto unrecorded in the archives of Sala y Gomez, 

 was celebrated. 



Passing to the southward of Easter Island (27° S.), and 

 using a strong glass, the massive carved stone figures, which 

 have been a puzzle to everybody, could be seen standing on 

 the slope of the hill. How these huge blocks of stone came 



