J""^'] Excursion to Phillip Island. 31 



one time had their eyrie on one of these chffs, but are no longer 

 seen here. At Pyramid Rock, which can be seen in the 

 distance, there was also at one time a pair of these birds 

 breeding. I waded ov^er to this rock one day to inspect the 

 place, and found the remains of the old nest. Oh ! that was a 

 most uncanny wade, seaweed, kelp, and thoughts of octopus 

 tentacles occupying my mind all the time, and the breakers, 

 which rolled in from two different directions, had to be 

 closely watched. I was very glad when I got back to land. 

 After feasting our eyes on the fine view to be obtained from the 

 Cape we saw the remainder of the party in the distance, and, 

 joining them, made along the neck of the Cape. Here we 

 noticed that the planting of marram grass to check the sand- 

 drift had in places been eminently successful. Sand-encrusted 

 roots were found in considerable quantities exposed by this 

 drift. These curious formations, popularly known as " petrified 

 wood," were dealt with by Dr. T. S. Hall in an interesting article 

 in the Naturalist some years ago [Vict. Nat., xviii., p. 47), when 

 their method of formation was carefully worked out. We now 

 turned towards our camping-ground, and on the way found 

 a number of Mutton-birds which had lost their lives through 

 coming in contact with the barbed-wire fences. We can no 

 longer doubt this fact, for we found a couple of birds which 

 had been unable to free themselves, and thus died a lingering 

 death. We photographed one of these birds, which you will 

 see on the screen presently. It would be a great gain if the 

 State could acquire the whole line of rookeries along the coast 

 to Murray's and do away with these fences. The sand-drifts 

 were a revelation to our party, and we estimated one in 

 particular as being over 120 feet above sea-level, and at an 

 angle of 25° to the water's edge. Arriving at camp, we had 

 tea, and started back towards Cowes. On the way we stopped 

 at Forrest's rookery to ringmark some birds and watch the 

 flight of the incoming old birds. On leaving we had to face 

 a thunderstorm, and, on account of the vivid lightning, had to 

 walk the horses nearly the whole way back, and consequently 

 we did not arrive till just before 10 p.m., but well satisfied with 

 our trip. 



Sunday morning was drizzling with rain. Some of us elected 

 to go to church, while others did something else. The after- 

 noon was fine, and, taking the motor-boat, we all went off to 

 see the seals. The sea being calm, we were fortunate in getting 

 quite close to the Seal Rocks, and saw the seals (which number 

 about 400-600) to advantage. A musical interlude on a 

 kerosene tin soon brought them swimming around us. We 

 tacked and tacked again, and at last regretfully left the scene. 

 On one portion of the rocks were about 50 or 60 all by them- 



