Chap viii.] WHALING AMONGST THE KELP. 1 85 



The shag ought to learn to swallow under water, and the 

 gull to devour its prey at once in the air. The Skua is merely 

 a gull which has developed itself by fighting for morsels. 



We fell in with three American whaling schooners at 

 Kerguelen. They work Heard Island for Sea Elephants and 

 Kerguelen for whales more especially. They get their princi- 

 pal hands at Fogo in the Cape Verdes on the way out ; the 

 Portuguese there being very willing to embark, even for a 

 South Sea whaling cruise, in order to escape the military 

 conscription. The schooners, which belong to two different 

 owners, are tended by a barque, which brings out provisions 

 and takes home oil and skins. 



A difficulty would arise from a whale when struck running 

 through the thick beds of kelp i^Macrocystis) which everywhere 

 form tangled barriers at a certain distance from shore. This is 

 got over by having large very sharp knives ready, which are 

 held close beside the line as the boat scuds through the water, 

 dragged by the whale, and cut a clean passage in the weed. 



The whales are killed by means of a bomb, a cylindrical 

 iron tube full of powder provided wuth a fuse and pointed at 

 one end ; at the other, provided with feathers like an arrow. 

 The whole is not unlike a large crossbow bolt. The feathers 

 are made of vulcanized indiarubber, and when the bolt is 

 rammed into the gun from which it is fired, are wrapped round 

 the end of the shaft. As soon as the bolt leaves the muzzle 

 they expand, and prevent the bombs wobbling or capsizing. 



The invention is extremely ingenious. The bomb is fired 

 from a heavy gun from the shoulder, and is good up to about 

 fifteen paces. It is fired into the whale just behind the flipper. 



It goes in, and after a while makes a loud explosion, often 

 killing the beast almost at once. Four kinds of whales are 

 common about Kerguelen's Island, but only one, the Southern 

 Whalebone Whale, is regularly hunted. A bomb is fired into 

 the other kinds, if there is a chance of doing so from the ship, 

 and if the beast hit appears maimed, it is then tackled on to 

 with the harpoons. Similar bombs are now regularly used in 

 the North. 



I was sorry to leave Kerguelen's Land, for I enjoyed the 

 place thoroughly. We had wonderfully good weather, and 

 sometimes the sun was extremely hot. The sunrises and sun- 

 sets were often most gorgeous, and the view in evening or 

 early morning up Royal Sound, with its wide expanse of sea 

 dotted all over with rocky islands, like some large inland lake, 

 and with Mount Ross towering blue in the distance, and 

 capped with snow and glaciers, is most grand and beautiful. 



The climate of Kerguelen's Land is, as is that of all the 



