241 



as they have all since died. The Snipe lived six days, and fed on 

 worms easily and greedily, but it seemed to me that the cold 

 weather experienced in the Auckland Islands finished them off. 

 Skuas (Cape hens), Mollyhawks and Petrels abouuded ; the latter 

 underground with the Mutton birds and Whale birds uttered 

 weird gurglings in the bowels of the island. We left the islands 

 in thick weather, in the evening, and steamed easily about 150 

 miles further South, to the Auckland Islands, which we made the 

 next morning about 5 a m., Nov. 16th, in thick drizzling weather 

 and a moderate sea. Our first port of call was Port Ross, on the 

 N.E. side of the island ; and at the head ,of it flew a dirty rag on 

 a pole and presently the beach became alive with men. They 

 were a shipwrecked crew. I must here tell you that the New 

 Zealand Government provide provision depots, boats and sheds on 

 all the Southern Islands, and this vessel goes once in six months 

 to examine them, and for this purpose we visited Port Boss, a 

 great arm or fiord stretching into the heart of the island, and over- 

 looked by heights 2,000 feet high, in dense foliage up to GOO feet, 

 and then a low scrub, till the grass line is met at 800 to 1,000 feet. 

 The ship's boat was launched and Captain Bollons went ashore, 

 and soon came with the news of the wreck, and four of the men 

 themselves rowed off in the Government boat, to get more 

 provisions from our vessel, as they had nearly exhausted the store 

 ashore. The four-masted barque, Dundonald, bound from Sydney 

 to England, with grain, went ashore at 12.30 a.m. on March 7th, 

 1007, on an isolated desert island, devoid of a depot or boat, about live 

 miles off the west coast of the main island. It was a pitch dark 

 night with thick drizzling rain. The watch had just changed 

 when towering cliffs were seen rising right above them, there 

 was no room to wear the vessel, although an attempt was maae, 

 and she was driven smack into a cleft, in the cliff, with halt a 

 gale of wind behind her. Out of a crew of 27, there were 15 

 saW, and 12 drowned, including the captain and his son ana 

 most of the ship's officers. The only way of getting ashore .at all, 

 was by way of the mizzen, and so on to a ledge of the cliff, out 

 the first man Mho attempted it, slipped on the cliff and %va 

 dashed to pieces on the rocks. The second man was more 

 successful and got a rope ashore, and another man came after mm, 

 and they together managed to work round the cliff, and got a line 

 aboard to the rest of the crew who were all assembled on tin 

 foc'sle. By this time the vessel was in two halves and some had 

 been washed out of it and drowned, including the captain lis 



Eventually 16 got ashore, including e 



— lUHte, wno go* me nne ashore originally, but who a terwards 



died of exposure, and was buried on the island. The crew me 

 on penguins and mutton birds, and various P e trelj and «£««» 

 for six months, and managed to make a rough boat out o tb oi 

 sail cloth, and trees cut down on the island, and in this, picKmg a 

 calm day, four of them managed to find a landing on the nam 

 island (last October^. The four then proceeded inland tc trj and 



son and the chief steward, 

 old mate, who got the line 



iDirtim imsc uciooeri. xne ioiu wcu r» — -- , , , t-ii»>in 



discoveV the provision depot, which ^ old ma^, t ^ 

 existed on t.h« M «t n«wt of the main island. They foiled, however, 



^^xdlcia uii uie east cunau uj. tuc mcuu *~ — - j:,,- +iuw were 



and as their pot of tire had been ^^^^J^t^L d 

 obliged to return whence they came ; after MX weeks nau y 

 and another boat had been constructed, three men set ott 



