Chap, ix.) HUNTING SEA ELEPHANTS. I97 



The sealers said that the cHmate of Heard Island was far 

 more rigorous than that of Kerguelen's Land. In winter the 

 whole of the ground is frozen, and the streams are stopped, so 

 that snow has to be melted in order to obtain water. In 

 December, at Midsummer, there is plenty of sunshiny weather, 

 and Big Ben is often to be seen. It is possible to land in 

 whale boats, on the average of the whole year, only once in 

 three days, so surf-beaten is the shore, so stormy the weather. 



We saw six sealers ; two were Americans, and two Portu- 

 guese from the Cape Verde Islands. They were left on the 

 island by the whaling vessels which we met with at Kerguelen's 

 Land, their duty being to hunt Sea-Elephants. The men engage 

 to remain three years on the island, and see the whale ships 

 only for a short time in the spring of each year. 



On the more exposed side of the island there is an exten- 

 sive beach, called Long Beach. This is covered over with 

 thousands of Sea-Elephants in the breeding season, but it is 

 only accessible by land, and then only by crossing two glaciers 

 or " ice-bergs " as the sealers call them. No boat can live to 

 land on this shore, consequently men are stationed on the 

 beach, and live there in huts ; and their duty is constantly to 

 drive the Elephants from this beach into the sea, which they 

 do with whips made of the hide of the Elephants themselves. 

 The beasts thus ousted swim off, and often " haul up," as the 

 term is, upon the accessible beaches elsewhere, and there they 

 are killed and their blubber is taken to be boiled down. 



In very stormy weather, when they are driven into the sea, 

 they are forced to betake themselves to the sheltered side of 

 the island ; hence the men find that stormy weather pays them 

 best. Two or three old males, termed " beach-masters," hold 

 a beach to themselves and cover it with cows, but allow no 

 other males to haul up. The males fight furiously, and one 

 man told us that he had seen an old male take up a younger 

 one in his teeth and throw him over, lifting him in the air. 

 The males show fight when whipped, and are with great 

 difficulty driven into the sea. They are sometimes treated 

 with horrible brutality. 



The females give birth to their young soon after their arrival. 

 The new-born young are almost black, unlike the adults, which 

 are of a light slate brown, and the young of the northern 

 Bladdernose, which are white. They are suckled by the 

 female for some time, and then left to themselves lying on the 

 beach, where they seem to grow fat without further feeding. 

 They are always allowed by the sealers thus to lie, in order to 

 make more oil. 



I'his account was corroborated by all the sealers I met with. 



