H6 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. in. 



tends, in several varieties, to the Cape, New Zealand, and Aus- 

 tralia. 



We heard a cnrious story at Tristan abont two Germans who 

 had settled nearly two years before on Inaccessible Island. 

 Once a year, about the month of December, the Tristan men 

 go to the two outlying islands to pick up the few seals which 

 are still to be found. On two of these occasions they had seen 

 the Germans, and within a few months smoke had risen from 

 the island, which they attributed to their having fired some of 

 the brush ; but as they had seen or heard nothing of them 

 since, they thought the j^robability was that they had per- 

 ished. Caj)tain Nares wished to visit the other islands, and to 

 ascertain the fate of the two men was an additional object in 

 doing so. 



Next morning we were close under Inaccessible Island, the 

 second in size of the little group of three. The ship was sur- 

 rounded by multitudes of penguins, and as few of us had any 

 previous personal acquaintance with this eccentric form of life, 

 we followed their movements witli great interest. The penguin 

 as a rule swims under water, rising now and then and resting 

 on the surface, like one of the ordinary water-birds, but more 

 frequently with its body entirely covered, and only lifting its 

 head from time to time to breathe. 



One peculiarity surprised us greatly; for although we were 

 tolerabl}^ familiar with the literature of the family, we had 

 never seen it described. The " rock-hopper," and, I am inclined 

 to think, species of other genera besides Eudyptes, when in a 

 number in the water, have a constant habit of closing together 

 the legs and tail straight out, laying the wings flat to the sides, 

 arching forward the neck, and, apparently by an action of the 

 muscles of the back, springing forward clear out of tlie M'ater, 

 showing a steel-gray back and a silvery belly, like a grilse. 

 They run in this way in lines like a school of porpoises, seem- 

 ingly in play ; and when they are thus disporting themselves 



