CHAPTER Vlil. 



KERGUELEN'S LAND. 



Position of the Island. Its Mountains and Fjords. Active Volcano. 

 Christmas Harbour. Sea Elephants and Fur Seals. Shooting Teal. 

 The Kerguelen Cabbage. Wingless Flies and Gnats. Vegetation at 

 Successive Heights. Fossil Wood. Rookeries of Rock Hopper and 

 Macaroni Penguins. Penguins Inhabiting a Cave. Betsy Cove. 

 Glaciation of the Land Surface. Iceborne Rocks. Excavation of the 

 Fjords. Beds of Burnt Coal. The Sea Leopard. Killing Sea Elephants. 

 Nature of the Trunk of the Sea Elephant. Carrion Birds. The 

 Giant Petrel. Habits of Several Burrowing Petrels. The Diving 

 Petrel. Habits of Sheath Bills. Struggle for Existence amongst the 

 Birds. Mode of Whaling amongst the Kelp. 



Kerguelen's Land, January 7th to January 30th, 1874. — 



Kerguelen's Land extends from about lat. 48° 39' S., to lat. 

 49° 44' S.* Its .southernmost point is therefore in about 

 corresponding latitude to the Lizard in Cornwall, which is in 

 a little less than 50° N. In longitude, very roughly speaking, 

 Kerguelen's Land corresponds with the island of Rodriguez, 

 the Maldive Islands, Bombay, Tobolsk, and the mouth of the 

 River Obi. 



The extreme length of the island is about 85 miles, and the 

 extreme breadth 79 miles; but the coast is so much indented 

 by sounds or fjords that the area of the island is not more 

 than, very roughly, 2,050 square miles, or about three times as 

 great as that of Oxfordshire. 



The island lies within the belt of rain at all seasons of the 

 year, and being reached by no drying winds, and its tempera- 

 ture being kept down by the surrounding vast expanse of 

 sea, has its soil and vegetable covering permanently saturated 

 with moisture. Further, with this fiict of constant precipitation 

 of moisture is connected the form of the island itself, since 

 fjord formation is accomplished only by glaciation on a large 



* Lat. of Cape Francis, the northernmost point, 48°-39 S., long. 69°02 E. 

 Lat. of Cape Challenger, the southernmost point, 49°44 S., long. 

 7o°o5 E. 



Extreme breadth between long. 7o°"35 E. and long. 68°'42 E. 

 The Lizard is in Lat. 49°-57 o' 41" N. 



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