86 Cruise 0/ the "Alert?* 



" lay-to M about six miles to windward of it. Viewing the island 

 at this distance from the eastward, it presented the appearance of 

 a roughly cubical flat-topped mass of rock, leaning slightly to the 

 northward, and bounded — so far as one could see — by perpen- 

 dicular cliffs of a gloomy and forbidding aspect, which rose to an 

 altitude of 1,500 feet. As we approached the island on the fol- 

 lowing morning its appearance by no means improved, and nowhere 

 could be seen any break in the rampart of lofty cliffs, which seemed 

 to forbid our disturbing their solitude. We looked in vain for the 

 " sheltered cove," where, as the sailing instructions say, " there is 

 good landing for boats at all times of the year." After making 

 the circuit of the island, we " lay-to " about a mile from the N.E. 

 cliff, and two boats were sent to reconnoitre, in one of which I 

 took passage. After pulling a considerable distance along the 

 foot of the cliffs, we at length succeeded, though with great diffi- 

 culty, in landing at the foot of a spur of basaltic rock, which 

 sloped down from the cliffs at a high angle. The first thing that 

 attracted our attention was a grotesque-looking crab {Grapsus 

 variegatus), of a reddish-brown colour, mottled on the carapace 

 with yellow spots. It scuttled about in a most independent way, 

 and seemed quite indifferent as to whether it trotted over the bot- 

 toms of the rock pools, or ran up the steep face of the rock to a 

 height of forty feet above the water-line. Sea-birds innumerable 

 flew about us in all directions, but on careful inspection we could 

 only muster up three different species; viz., a large white-winged 

 gannet(S?//tf), a plump dark-coloured petrel (Aestrelata defilippiana), 

 and a slender white and grey tern (A nous).* The petrels were 

 nesting in the rock crevices. The nest consisted of a few withered 

 twigs and dirty feathers, forming a very scanty bed on the hard 

 rock, and containing a solitary white egg. The birds stuck bravely 

 to their nests, and would not relinquish their charge until, with 

 bill and claws, they had given an account of themselves, calculated 



* These and other birds collected during the cruise have been described and determined 

 by Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, the distinguished ornithologist of the British Museum. 



