\yS kerguelen's land. 



more like beef, or muscles of land animals generally, not 

 black, and the meat was found very good to eat by some of our 

 crew. Mr. Brown (loc. cit.) speaks of a green slime found by 

 him in the stomachs of the northern Bladder-nose (the northern 

 representative of the Sea-Elephant). He ascribes it to seaweed 

 adhering to Mollusca {Mja tnaicata) eaten by the seal. It 

 is, however, probably only bile pigment. Peron found cuttle- 

 fish beaks and Fucus in the Sea-Elephants' stomachs. The 

 walrus, like the Bladder-nose, feeds on Mollusca. In a walrus, 

 dissected by the second German North Polar Expedition, the 

 bodies of from 500 to 600 iyMya frinicafa) were found in the 

 stomach, with only one single small piece of shell, the animal 

 evidently rejecting the shells with great care. Stones are found 

 in all seals' stomachs, apparently just as in those of penguins. 



There seems little fear of the Sea-Elephant dying out, not- 

 withstanding that every one that can be got at is killed and 

 boiled down by the sealers. I saw myself, at Kerguelen's 

 Land, eighteen Elephants, and one at Marion Island. On the 

 weather-side of the island is a beach, where are thousands of 

 Sea-Elephants. These can be got at from land, but shallow 

 water and a heavy surf prevents the approach of a boat. Hence, 

 if the animals be killed and their blubber boiled down, the 

 casks cannot be got off to a ship, nor can they be transported 

 over land. 



The beach is called Bonfire Beach, because some English 

 sealers made a lot of oil here, headed it up in casks, and then 

 found they could make no use of it. So they piled the casks 

 up and set fire to them, in the hopes of driving some of the 

 Elephants to more convenient quarters. The numbers of seals 

 at Kerguelen in ancient times must have been enormous. 

 Their vast old empty rookeries are still marked by trough-like 

 hollows in the ground, where the seals used to lie. 



We rolled the dead Sea-Elephant down to the water, and got 

 him afloat with some ditTiculty, then towed the three animals 

 off to the ship with great labour, by rowing against the wind, 

 through the thick beds of kelp {Macrocystis pirifera). Whilst 

 we were at work on the beach, crowds of birds began to assemble, 

 especially the Giant Petrel or " Breakbones " {Ossifraga 

 gigantea), the "Nelly " or " Stinker " of sealers. This bird in 

 its habits is most remarkably like the vulture. 



It soars all day along the coast on the look-out for food. No 

 sooner is an animal killed, than numbers appear as if by magic, 

 and the birds are evidently well acquainted with the usual 

 proceedings of sealers — who kill the Sea-Elephant, take off 

 the skin and blubber, and leave the carcass. They settled 

 down here all round in groups, at a short distance, a dozen or 



