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



carried on by means of these cutters and the ship's boats, which were stationed in a kind of 

 cordon round the island, the cutters visiting the boats, taking them supplies, and collecting 

 the skins and blubber, which they took to the ship, where it was boiled down. The men 

 on shore remained at times months away from their vessel, their only shelter being their 

 boat turned bottom up on the beach, with the leeward side elevated and built round with 

 peat cut from the boggy moss which covers the ground. The small cutters frequently 

 circumnavigated the group, and doubtless their crews experienced many anxious moments, 

 especially when on the windward side. Meanwhile, the parent ship lay snugly in some 

 landlocked port ; thus, the " Hillsborough," Captain Ehodes, wintered in Winter Harbour, 

 the "Frances" and "Royal Sovereign" in Greenland Harbour, the "Favourite" in 

 Marianne Strait, the " President," " Emerald," and " Kingston " in Iceberg Bay, the 

 " Vansittart" in Table Bay, and the " Emily" and " Kingston " in Swain's Bay. 



At the present date sealing and whaling operations are confined almost entirely to the 

 leeward side ; the weather side is, however, occasionally visited by Captain Fuller in the 

 " Roswell King," who is thoroughly acquainted with the whole island. He starts about 

 September from Christmas Harbour, and passing to windward of the Cloudy Islands, visits 

 all the anchorages from Cape d'Aiguillon to Greenland Harbour. Some idea of the danger 

 of this enterprise maybe formed from the fact that the " Eoswell King," a schooner of 100 

 tons, carries for use on the weather side of Kerguelen Island, an anchor and cable of the 

 same size as that used in the Challenger, a vessel of 1420 tons, and that no harbour 

 on that side can be left except with a northerly, or leading wind, for the high swell 

 continually breaking against the iron-bound coast renders it certain destruction to leave the 

 shelter of an anchorage unless a sufficient offing can be gained before the westerly wind 

 begins. 



Although well known to the whaling and sealing vessels, whose crews talk of 

 Thunder Harbour, William's Bay, Marianne Strait, &c, with the same familiarity as 

 of Spithead or Plymouth Sound, no accurate information respecting the island was 

 obtained from the time of Cook's visit until 1840, when Sir James Eoss touched at 

 Christmas Harbour to obtain magnetic observations, and during his stay — from May 12th 

 to July 20th — explored the inlets between that harbour and Howe Island, whilst Dr. 

 MacCormick investigated the geology, and Sir Joseph Hooker the botany of this desolate 

 spot. 



From 1840 to the date of the visit of the Challenger to ascertain the most suitable 

 site for the observation of the transits of Venus (in 1874 and 1882), no additional infor- 

 mation appears to have been published. The southeastern portion of the island was 

 surveyed by the Challenger from the entrance of Hillsborough Bay to Cape Challenger, 

 and Boss's work connected with that of this Expedition. Since then the German frigate 

 " Gazelle " has surveyed that part of the coast between Howe Island and Hillsborough 

 Bay, thus completing the leeward side, and the " Volage " has added somewhat to the 



