3 1 8 . Voyage of the Novara. 



away from the main land ! Hundreds of questions suggested 

 themselves on thus unexpectedly coming upon so well-known a 

 wanderer. What could have condemned him to this self- 

 imposed exile ? Was he a straggler ? Was it the first time 

 he had selected this island for a home ? Had it been his own 

 cradle ? And would he at some future period find companions 

 to visit with him, and ultimately share these solitary desolate 

 abodes ? 



There were no seals visible, — they have retreated before the 

 attacks and stratagems of their insatiate pursuer the seal- 

 hunter, and for a long period have ceased to frequent the 

 island. Indeed, St. Paul furnishes not a single specimen of 

 mammal peculiar to itself; for all the members of this great 

 natural division at present on it, — such as goats, swine, 

 cats, &c., — having become wild, must necessarily be classed, 

 however unusual, with rats, mice, and the like. In other re- 

 spects, all these have not varied in the slightest from the type of 

 the domesticated animal (although they have probably lived 

 wild for a hundred years past), except that they are very shy 

 and avoid the presence of man. 



While upon these various points, the stay of the Imperial 

 Expedition at St. Paul gave many splendid results by means of 

 observations and scientific collections, it was also productive of 

 a number of important practical benefits for seafaring people. 

 The geodesical results, for instance, obtained by the Expedition, 

 demonstrate that there is formed by the basin of the crater at St 

 Paul's, despite the small extent of its coast-line, a secure natural 



