Section VIII. "Scotia Rise" Region: the Voyage from the Weddell Sea 



northward to Gough Island. 



By L. N. G. RAMSAY, M.A., B.Sc. 



THIS section deals with the observations made by the Scotia naturalists and the 

 specimens obtained during the period between April 1st, 1904, and the ship's arrival at 

 Gough Island. An irregular northerly course was followed, chiefly between the 8th 

 and 1 3th meridians of west longitude. 



The voyage lasted twenty days, and some 1200 or more nautical miles of ocean were 

 traversed. Very rough weather was experienced for most of the way. A cluster of a 

 dozen bergs seen on April otb was almost the last ice encountered. 



Bird-life was rather plentiful throughout the voyage, in the form of numerous 

 albatroses and petrels of which eighteen to twenty species were seen and a few 

 penguins and terns and (towards Gough Island) skuas. 



Hutton's Sooty Albatroses (Phcebetria cornicoides) were about the ship in some 

 numbers the whole way (the Scotia had first met them, after leaving the Antarctic Seas, 

 in 67 S. lat.). 



P. fuliginosa was not met with till 55 S. was reached. These two species, as 

 stated by Mr Eagle Clarke in the preceding section, had not been recognised as distinct 

 previous to the voyage of the Scotia, although the form cornicoides had been described 

 long before as a variety of P. fuliginosa. The difference between the two was sufti- 

 ciently striking, even when seen only on the wing, to make Dr Bruce believe that they 

 must be specifically distinct His diary for April 4th records that another species of 

 " Sooty," different from the " blue-billed " form (cornicoides), by which they had been 

 accompanied for a week past, was seen, thus : " A Sooty Albatros with a yellow instead 

 of a blue stripe on its beak, and the streak is broader, the plumage altogether more 

 uniform and darker in colour than that of the blue-billed form, whose head alone is 

 very dark." 



After this date, fuliginosa was seen in about equal numbers with cornicoides until 

 Gough Island was approached, but for 70 miles or so south of the island the "yellow- 

 billed " species was the more numerous. 



The Scotia's collection includes ten specimens of Phcebetria, three of which are 

 P. cornicoides, the remaining seven P. fuliginosa. The labels of one of the former 

 and of two of the latter have unfortunately been lost, but all the others were obtained 

 on the part of the Scotia's voyage at present under consideration, except one of the 

 specimens of P. fuliginosa, which was obtained at Gough Island. The dimensions of 



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