414 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



from the former. Tristan, the largest of the group, is about 15 miles in circumference, and its 

 highest peak, elevated some 8,326 feet above the sea, is visible for nearly 75 miles. The other 

 two islands are called Inaccessible and Nightingale, the three, about 10 miles apart, forming 

 a triangle, with Tristan as the northeast point. The group was discovered by the Portuguese 

 in the sixteenth century, and was further explored by the Dutch in 1643 and by the French 

 in 1767. 



The islands were for many years a favorite resort of whaling and sealing vessels. Fur-seals 

 were here very plenty at the close of the last and beginning of the present century. In the season 

 of 1790, lasting from August in that year to April, 1791, the schooner Industry, of Philadelphia, 

 under Captain Patten, obtained here 5,600 skins for the Chinese market. Captain Patten says 

 he could have loaded a large ship with oil in three weeks, so abundant were the sea-elephants. 

 September he reckoned to be the best month for making oil at these islands. 



About the year 1810 three of the crew of an American sealing vessel then at the island deter- 

 mined to remain there a few years in order to prepare seal skins and oil and sell the same to 

 vessels that might touch there. They were Yankees, and with Yankee pluck they cleared about 

 50 acres of land and planted coffee, sugar-ca.ne, and seeds of other plants. Success crowned their 

 efforts, and it seemed as if an important settlement might be the outgrowth of this little colony. 

 One of the number, Jonathan Lambert, declared himself sovereign proprietor of these islands. 

 The project was abandoned in a few years, and in 1817 the British Government took possession 

 with a detachment of troops. After the withdrawal of the troops a corporal named Glass received 

 permission to remain, and a small colony soon after sprung up, which has survived till the present 

 time and numbered in 1873 about ninety persons. 



The English exploring ship Challenger visited the place a few years ago, and Mr. Moseley, in 

 his narative of the expedition, describes the Tristan group as follows: " It has a cold, barren appear- 

 ance; a terrible climate; for nine months of the year constant storm and rain, with snow. It is 

 only in the three summer months that the weather is at all flue. In October, the 'bad season,' as 

 the islanders called it, was just beginning to pass away, but the weather was so uncertain that 

 the ship might have had to leave her anchorage at a moment's notice, and only a steamer dared 

 anchor at all. 



"The cottages are built of huge blocks of a soft red stuff, fitted together with mortar, and are 

 thatched with tussock-grass. They are all low one-storied structures, formed with low stone walls 

 about them, in which a few vegetables are grown , and pigs and geese roam about. The potato 

 fields are all walled for protection from the wind. * * * 



"The sea-elephants (Morunga dephanta) have almost deserted the island. The last was seen 

 two years before our visit on the beach just below the settlement. The islanders make yearly 

 visits to Inaccessible and Nightingale Islands in pursuit of seals, but these are becoming scarcer 

 every year." 



At Inaccessible Island, which is about 23 miles distant from Tristan Island proper, and which 

 has an area of about 4 square miles, Mr. Moseley found two Germans, who had been there two 

 /ears, having been landed by a whaling vessel in hopes of their obtaining some fur-seals, but in 

 his they were disappointed. 



Nightingale Island is about 20 miles southwest of Tristan Island, and has an area of about 

 one square mile. It is very rocky, and is covered with tussock-grass higher than a man's head. 

 Numerous caves in the low cliffs along the shore are frequented by fur seals. Mr. Mosely states 

 ihat 1,400 were killed by one ship's crew in 1869 or 1870. The island is visited annually by the 

 Tristan people, though but few seals are captured. 



