888 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Tristan people had tried to introduce the bud into their island without success. The ouly 

 other land hird of the group, a kind of Water Hen {(ia/h'mi/a iicsiotis). which is found 

 also on the higher plateau at Tristan Island, and is deseribed by the inhabitants as seareelv 

 able to fly. was not met with. Only very few inhabit the low laud under the elitfs at 

 Inaeeessible Island, and the exploring parties were unable to laud at the only place from 

 «rhkh the higher main plateau of the island is to be reached. The Germans said that 

 the Inaeeessible Island bird is much smaller than (ia/liiiulu ncsiotis, ami differs from it 

 in having liner legs and a longer beak. This is, however, hardly probable, since the 

 Tristan species occurs at Gough Island. 



Sitting on the tree tops with the Thrushes were numerous Noddies, of the same 

 two species as those of St. Paul's Kocks. It was strange to see birds which one had met 

 with on the equator living in common with Boobies, here mingling with antaretic forms. 

 The Noddy, however, ranges far north also, occasionally even to Ireland. The whole 

 of the peaty ground underneath the trees in the P/u//ica woods is bored in all directions 

 with the holes of smaller sea birds, called by the Germans " night birds," a Prion and a 

 J'ttff'uitt*. These burrows are about the size of large rats' holes, and they traverse the 

 ground everywhere, twisting and turning, and undermining the surface so that it gives 

 way at almost every step. 



The rocks of Inaccessible Island arc fclspathic basalt (some specimens of this basalt 

 have porphyritic augite). dolerite, augite-andesite, sideronielan, and palagonite. 



\ ihtingale Island, the smallest and southernmost island of the grottp, consists of 

 one large and two small islets, with several rocks immediately adjacent to the coast, and, 

 unlike Tristan and Inaccessible Islands, rises in low T cliffs, from the top of which the land 

 slopes upwards, terminating in two peaks, one of which (1100 feet high) is rugged and 

 steep, whilst the other (960 feet high) slopes gently towards the coast all round, except 

 immediately to the southward, where its descent is precipitous. Nightingale Island is 

 one mile long east and west, and three quarters of a mile wide : the other two islets lie 

 to the northward of Nightingale, and are each a third of a mile in length and a sixth in 

 breadth ; they were named by the Challenger, " Stoltcnkoff " and " Middle" Islands; Stol- 

 tenkotl', the farthest from Nightingale, being 325 feet high, with a flat top, and Middle 

 Island 150 feet high, with an undulating top. 



Nightingale Island was first landed on by M. d'Etchcvery in 1707, who anchored his 

 vessel " l'Etoile du Matin" off it in 83 fathoms, with the centre of the island W.S.W. 

 He described Stoltcnkotl' Island as having the appearance of a ruined fort, a description 

 which holds good to the present day. Nightingale Island has, so far as is known, never 

 been inhabited, although it lias been visited frequently tor the purpose of shooting Seals, 

 numbers of which used to frequent the eaves hollowed out in its low elitl's ; but the reck- 

 less manner in which the Seals were slaughtered caused them to desert this breeding place. 



