no NIGHTINGALE ISLAND. 



beds and conglomerates. This layer is evidently a lava flow of 

 comparatively late date, as it seems to have run down the 

 valley between the two ridges, and to have come from the 

 south ; its upper surface is a little rounded, higher in the 

 centre, and thinning off at the edges, as may be seen in the 

 section exposed in the cliff. 



It is on the almost level upper surface of this flow that the 

 great penguin rookery lies. The island has evidently, like 

 Inaccessible Island, undergone immense denudation, and there 

 is no trace of any centres of action remaining. In the low 

 cliffs of the coast, numerous caves are formed by the eating 

 out by waves of the softer strata underlying the hard cap of 

 basalt. 



The caves, are so numerous as to form a striking feature in 

 the appearance of the island as it is approached from sea- 

 wards ; such caves are not apparent at Inaccessible or Tristan 

 da Cunha Islands. 



The caves, with the sloping ledges leading up to them, are 

 frequented as was said by fur seals. Four years before 1,400 

 seals had been killed on the island by one ship's crew ; 

 they are much scarcer now, but the island is visited regularly 

 once a year by the Tristan people, as is also Inaccessible Island. 

 The Germans only killed seven seals at Inaccessible Island, 

 but the Tristan people killed forty there in December, 1872. 

 Two seals were seen by us in the water about the rocks, but 

 none on land. 



The sloping rock ledges are covered with a thin coating of 

 dark green ulva, which, when dry, has a peculiar almost 

 metallic glance. A short scramble up the rocks brought us at 

 once face to face with the tall grass and penguins. 



The party broke up into small groups, each choosing what it 

 thought the best route for penetrating the enemy's country. I 

 made along the rocks to the point where, as I had seen from 

 the ship, the main street ended : here were hundreds of 

 penguins coming from and going to the sea in droves, or 

 hurrying along singly to catch up some drove, or lolling about 

 on the rocks, basking ; the moving ones going along hop, hop, 

 hop, just like men in a sack race. 



The hard rock was actually polished, and had its irregu- 

 larities smoothed off where the feet of the birds had worn it 

 down at the entrance to the street. No doubt the Diatom 

 skeletons present in the food and dung of the penguins, and 

 always in abundance in the mud of their rookeries, adhering to 

 their dirty feet, act as polishing powder and assist the wearing 

 process. 



The street did not open by a single definite mouth towards 



