360 NESTING PLACES OF THE ALBATROSS. 



through the intense rigour of the climate, or because 

 there is no fresh water on them, such places literally 

 swarm with sea-birds, their wild wave-beaten cliffs 

 being covered with myriads of these winged fowl, 

 which rest and live amid these rocky solitudes; in 

 some instances in such extraordinary profusion, that 

 the rocks are covered many feet in depth with 

 deposits of guano. 



There are a good many instances of this in the 

 antarctic regions, and in desert islands situated far out 

 amidst the southern seas; it is on these latter more 

 especially where the wandering albatross makes her 

 nest, far beyond the reach of human plunderers. * 

 One of the best known of these places is the Hunter 

 group of islands situated some 20 miles N.W. of the 

 Tasmanian coasts in Lat. 400 23' S., Long. 1440 58' E. 

 These rocky islets were discovered by Bass and 

 Flinders so long ago as 1798, and were then covered 

 with immense droves of seals, which lined the cliffs, and 

 disputed the right of way with Bass, when he landed 

 among them. Fighting his way however through the 

 seals, the great circumnavigator at length reached the 

 top of the island, and found its surface covered with 

 albatrosses, sitting on their nests so close together 

 that he had to force a passage through them with his 

 seal club. The island has ever since borne the name 

 of "Albatross Island." Only one visit is known to 



* Little is known of the breeding grounds of the albatross, as they 

 only nest in the most isolated and inaccessible places. They are however 

 known to breed on Tristan da Cunha, Prince Edward Island, the 

 Auckland, and the Campbell Islands. There are also immense colonies 

 of the white albatross (Diomedia Immtitabilis] on Laysar Island near 

 the Sandwich Island group, of which a splendid photograph is exhibited 

 in the South Kensington Museum of Natural History. 



