1 62 kerguelen's land. 



weather shore, and is well acquainted with the position of the 

 volcano, and though he had not been actually at it himself, 

 some of his men had ; and in Tristan da Cunha we received 

 independent testimony in the matter from old sealers. 



The appearance of the island in the region of the volcano 

 must thus be very different from that of the north-eastern and 

 south-eastern portions. 



As necessarily follows from the presence of fjords, the whole 

 of the lower rock surface of the island shows most marked 

 evidence of glaciation. 



Christmas Harbour, almost on the extreme north of the 

 island, is a small example of one of the fjords. It is a deep 

 inlet, looking nearly due east, with dark frowning cliffs on either 

 hand at its entrance. The land on either side runs out into 

 long narrow promontories, which separate the harbour from 

 another similar fjord on its south and from a bay on the north. 

 The promontories thus formed are high, and bounded through- 

 out almost their entire stretch by sheer precipices on either 

 hand. On the northern side only of Christmas Harbour, some- 

 what above its mouth, does the land rise in a steep broken 

 slope, which can be ascended directly from the sea. 



At the termination seawards of the southern promontory, is 

 the well-known arched rock of Christmas Harbour, a roughly 

 rectangular oblong mass, evidently once directly continuous 

 with the rest of the promontory, but now separated from it, 

 except at its very base, by a chasm, and perforated so as to 

 form an arch. Above the high cliffs on the south side towers 

 up a huge and imposing mass of black looking rock with per- 

 pendicular faces ; this overhanging somewhat towards the har- 

 bour from the weathering out of soft strata beneath it, looks 

 as if it might fall some day and fill the upper part. On the 

 north side rises a flat-topped rocky mass 1,215 ^^^^ in height, 

 called Table Mountain. 



At the head of the harbour is a sandy beach and small 

 stretch of flat land, as exists at the heads of all the fjords, and 

 beyond this the land rises in a series of steps, separated by 

 short cliffs towards the bases of Table Mountain and the great 

 rock on the south. 



The appearance of the whole is extremely grand, and the 

 marked contrast between the blackness of the rocks and the 

 bright yellow green of the rank vegetation clothing all the lower 

 region of the land, so characteristic of the appearance of all 

 these so-called Antarctic Islands, renders the general effect in 

 fine weather most beautiful. I landed on the morning of the 

 7th of January at the head of the harbour, with a large party, 

 all eager to kill a Fur Seal ; as the boat grounded on the black 



