THE ANTARCTIC SEAL FISHERIES. 423 



mass, forming the end of the island, ou which are two large glaciers, very steeply inclined, and one 

 of them terminating in a sheer ice-fall. At its back this mountain mass is bounded by precipices, 

 with their bases washed by the sea. The plain is traversed by several streams of glacier water 

 coining from the southern glaciers. These streams are constantly changing their course as the 

 beach and plain are washed about by the surf in heavy weather. * * * The sandy plain seemed 

 entirely of glacial origin ; it was in places covered with glacial mud, and was yielding, and heavy 

 to walk upon. * * * 



" The plain was strewed with bones of sea-elephant and sea-leopard, those of the former being 

 most abundant. There were remains of thousands of skeletons, and I gathered a good many tusks 

 of old males. The bones lay in curved lines, looking like tide lines, on either side of the plain 

 above the beaches, marking the rookeries of old times and tracks of slaughter of the sealers. Some 

 bones occurred far up ou the plain, the elephants having in times of security made their lairs far 

 from the water's edge. A few whales' vertebrae were also seen lying about. 



"On the opposite side of the plain from that bounded by the glacier is a stretch of low bare 

 rock, witli a peculiar smooth and rounded but irregular surface. This rock surface appears from 

 a distance as if glaciated, but on closer examination it is seen to show very distinct ripple marks 

 and lines of iknv, and the rock-mass is evidently a comparatively recent lava flow from a small 

 broken-down crater which stands ou the shore close by. 



* * * "Sir J. D. Hooker, in his latest memoir ou the botany of Kergueleu Laud, says: 

 'The three small archipelagoes of Kerguelen Island (including the Heard Islands), Marion and 

 Prince Edward's Islands, and the Crozets, are individually and collectively the most barren tracts 

 ou the globe, whether in their own latitude or in a higher one, except such as lie within the 

 Antarctic Circle itself; for no land, even within the North Polar area, presents so impoverished a 

 vegetation.' 



* * * The sealers said that the climate of Heard's Island was far more rigorous than that 

 of Kergueleu Laud. lu winter the whole of the ground is frozen, and the streams are stopped, 

 so that snow has to be melted in order to obtain water. lu December, at midsummer, there is 

 plenty of sunshiny weather, and Big Ben is often to be seen. It is possible to land in whale boats, 

 ou the average of the whole year only once in three days, so surf-beaten is the shore, so stormy 

 the weather. 



" We saw six sealers ; two were Americans and two Portuguese from the Cape Verde Islands. 

 They were left ou the island by the whaling vessels which we met with at Kerguelen Land, their 

 duty being to hunt sea-elephants. The men engage to remain three years on the island, and see 

 the whale ships only for a short time in the spring of each year. 



"On the more exposed side of the island there is an extensive beach called Long Beach. This 

 is covered over with thousands of sea-elephants iu the breeding season, but it is only accessible by 

 land, and then only by crossing two glaciers or icebergs, as the sealers call them. No boat can 

 live to land on this shore, consequently men are stationed on the beach, and live there in huts ; 

 and their duty is constantly to drive the elephants from this beach into the sea, which they do 

 with whips made of the hide of the elephants themselves. The beasts thus ousted swim off', and 

 often 'haul up,' as the term is, upou the accessible beaches elsewhere, and there they are killed 

 and their blubber is taken to be boiled down. 



" In very stormy weather, when ,they are driven into the sea, they are forced to betake them- 

 selves to the sheltered side of the island ; hence the men find that stormy weather pays them best. 

 Two or three old males, termed ' beach masters,' hold a beach to themselves and cover it with 

 cows, but allow no other males to haul up. The males fight furiously, and one man told me that 



