Correspondence — Straits of Magellan 197 



was full of seals and penguins playing about in the water. As we approached 

 the shore 40 or 50 huge seals came close behind the boat, and as we touched 

 the beach they remained at 15 or 20 yards off, staring at us, snorting, and then 

 diving and playing all manner of antics, shewing that they were quite ignorant 

 of who or what we were ; 40 or 50 yards along the beach there were as many 

 sea lions, quietly basking or sleeping, and though, as usual, two or three were 

 keeping watch, they did not attempt to move until some officers fired rifles at 

 them at a distance of 10 or 15 yards. As we ascended to the top of the island 

 the scene was extraordinary, the whole ground being burrowed by penguins 

 (they make holes for their nests), and covered by the animals themselves waddling 

 about in all directions, or standing at the entrance of their holes and barking at 

 any one who passed near — at least the noise they make is a sort of bark. These 

 penguins are not so large as the one I sent, but rather more clumpy, and with 

 shorter stronger bills. 



" As we went across a second ridge to get to the summit of the islands a still 

 more remarkable sight met our view. It was a cormorant rookery or village. 

 The penguins had hatched all their young, but the cormorants were still sitting, 

 and it was a most extraordinary sight. Some 200 or 300 yards of ground had 

 been laid quite bare by them, and there must have been between 2000 and 3000 

 birds at least sitting. The whole company was divided into three or four 

 villages, separated by small pools of very dirtydooking water ; the nests were 

 round saucers of mud, raised 5 or 6 inches off the ground, and placed in perfectly 

 straight rows, each nest being just a foot apart, as several were measured by the 

 officers, and each nest contained two or three eggs about half the size of a hen's 

 egg. They did not seem the least afraid of us, and as we approached sat quite 

 still ; indeed, it was not until we commenced to shout and throw things at them 

 that they would rise at all. When they did rise, however, it was like a cloud, 

 but they soon came back again ; altogether it was, as I have said, a most wonder- 

 ful and interesting sight. No mention is made of any one having landed there 

 in King and Fitzroy's time, and I should hardly fancy Darwin taking no notice 

 of such a thing in his book had he seen it, for Cunninghame says it is the most 

 interesting thing he has yet seen. If none of them landed there I should not 

 wonder if we were the first people who have done so for perhaps 200 or more 

 years, since the days when old Narborough and others salted penguins for food 

 and found ' they made excellent meat.' There was no trace whatever of human 

 beings ; the natives of that part have no canoes, and it is far out of the way of 

 any vessel passing through. Rich. C. Mayne." 



