68 AKGLIXG. 



finny prey, which they capture with much dexterity. 

 Sometimes they wheeled in circles around our boat, 

 apparently viewing us as intruders on their domain. 



On approaching the island, we found it a rock- 

 bound precipice, almost inaccessible, with a scanty 

 vegetation dispersed over its summit. It has a deso- 

 late appearance, is uninhabited, and only visited by 

 wlialemen and those unfortunates whom Neptune, in 

 his furious mood, casts upon its desolate shore. 

 On the clifls a few goats were to be seen, set ashore 

 some time since by the humane captain of a whaler, 

 who opined that they would increase, and aflbrd 

 sustenance to any shipwrecked mariners who might 

 be cast away here. 



We went close to the rocks, over which huge 

 breakers gambolled, and made our boats fast to the 

 kelp. Then out lines, and on the instant were busily 

 engaged in hauling in noble fish, varying in weight 

 from five to twenty pounds, of all varieties and 

 colors : cod, trumpeter, and many species unknown 

 to us, white, black, blue, yellow, and red. In the 

 course of a few hours we had secured as many as 

 we wanted ; the other boats experiencing like suc- 

 cess, the fish biting with the greatest avidity ; it only 

 being necessary to bait, heave the line overboard, and 

 haul up, and, ten chances to one, before it reached 

 the surface, a fish was attached to it. On an emi- 

 nence on the island, a royal mast is erected, it having 

 been the signal pole of the crew of the whale-ship 

 Tuscany, of Sag Harbor, which went ashore on this 

 island. 



It appears that the English ship Meridian, returning 

 from Australia, was cast away here. The principal 



