94 Soiitlicyii Cross. 



Fehiuari/ 10//*.— Have seen ;i number of the Brown-backed Petrel 

 t^Mlay, all tlvinu towards the east. Have also seen an Osslfraga gigantea 

 jiii<l a t,'n'v I'ctn-l. 



Fehriiartj 17 fh {the daij we anchored at Cape Adare). — Borchgrevink 

 and the whole staff' landed. B. and I carried guns, as we intended 

 t^o sh»K>t simie Seals as fdod f<ir the dogs. T killed sixteen Seals of a kind 

 we had not seen h«'fore.^ The stomach of one Seal was opened, and I 

 found it <|uite full of a kind of small tish like Whitings. Of birds we saw 

 the little Penguiji ; 0. oceauicus ; Megalestris maccormichi, and 0. gigantea. 

 ( )f this last we i)])S('rved four albinos. Borchgrevink shot four Megalestris. 

 Before we landed we saw hundieds of a small lin A\ hale. The majority 

 of the Penguins have left now ; those we saw were still in the moulting 



stage. 



March 'luJ.—W'e ha%e killed some Seals and Penguins to-day for food 

 for the dogs. Found an embryo, about 4.\ inch long, in one of the Seals. 

 Unfoitunately this was not preserved. 



March 3rd. — I had some sport to-day. Borchgrevink asked me to 

 shoot some Skuas, as they do us a great deal of damage by eating 

 and carrying away the Seal- and Penguin-meat we have stored for the 

 dogs. I killed eighty-two in ninety-one shots, all on the wing. Colbeck 

 killed a large Seal to-day in which was found an embiyo about 5 inches 

 long. The stomach was full of remnants of fish and a large number of 

 intestinal worms. 



March ith. — The bay in which the 'Southern Cross' was lying is now 

 tilled with heavy ice, so that, if the ship had still been here, she would 

 never have emerged again. The ice brought with it a number of Seals, so 

 that there would have been a good opportunity to lay in a considerable stock 

 of food for the dogs and as fuel, if we had had time to look after them. I 

 only killed one Seal to-day ; it was a tine specimen of Lohodon carcino- 

 phagitx, with uncommonly big teeth and a number of old scars on the skin. 

 In the stomach only sand and pebbles were found, and also some round 

 intestinal woims. All the other Seals seen to-day have been Leptony- 

 chotex trcddelli. Saw a Pagodroma nivea to-day. 



March ^ith (Sundajj). — Have done a little work outside and inside, 

 putting things to-rights. We have also had some rifle practice. 



Miirr/i ~ith. — The number of bii'ds is now rapidly decreasing since the 

 ice came, so there are now only a few left. Penguins {Pi/goscelis adeliie), 

 M'galextrin niaccormiclii, Ossifraga gigantea, and Oceanites oceanicus are 

 now only to be found singly. The Seals (Leptonychotes) are still as 

 numerous as liefore. 



Miirrh dth. — Yesterday I observed an 0. oceanicus performing e\olu- 

 tions high uj. in the air, at a height of about 200-300 metres, like a Swift. 

 I have often observed these birds, both when I was on board the ship and 

 als«i afU'r we landed here, flying round the ship and the house in the 

 evenings after dark, hkv. Bats, which they very much resemble in their 

 Hight. Yesterday I oi)served a Penguin walking round the house as if 

 Haying " GcKMl-bye " to us. 'J'o-day none are observed, neither on land nor 

 on the sea. 



Marrh \2th. in the birds there are now only a few left. Once 

 in a while ;, solitary individual is seen. Seals are proportionally more 



' Liptonycliotes wcddctH.—U. B. S. 



