O 



bling cannel c and does not soil the fingers. Another bed was 







318 Voyage of C apt Sir James C. Ross to the Antarctic. 



The albatross, cape pigeon, duck, petrel, and storm petrel in 

 great numbers, gave cheerfulness to the solitary wanderings of the 

 adventurers, and afforded a strong contrast to the dreary stillness 

 of the tropical regions where not a sea-bird is seen except near 

 the few islets, although the ocean abounds with proper food. 



May G.—Kerguelen Island, lat 49° 20' S., long. 39° 30' E., 

 was descried ; the directions of Cook were relied on and found to 

 be so accurate, that they sailed fearlessly and discovered this 

 small rocky island, when they were almost close upon it; they 

 anchored in Christmas harbor. 



This island was discovered in 1772, by a Lieutenant in the 

 French navy of the name Kerguelen, and for several years it ex- 

 cited much attention on account of its being supposed to be a part 

 of a great southern continent. It is bounded by a succession of 

 terraces rising to a height of more than one thousand feet, and 

 Table Mount on the north is 1350 feet high, with the appear- 

 ance of a crater on the summit. On the north side it has some 

 very perfect basaltic columns beautifully arranged, and their ruins 

 cover the sides and the bottom. 



The work by Capt. Ross is fully illustrated by beautiful plates 

 in harmony with its general style ; and among them a view of 

 Christmas harbor forms the frontispiece. This harbor has a cir- 

 cular figure, being walled in with a vertical colonnade of trap 

 rock — the point of view from which the picture was taken being 

 six hundred feet high. 



On the south side of Christmas harbor is a huge rock of basalt, 

 five hundred feet thick, resting upon an older rock at an elevation 

 of six hundred feet, through which it appears to have burst. Be- I 



tweeri these rocks were found fossil trees, and one of seven feet 

 in circumference was sent to England. The wood is partly sin- j 



cified so as to scratch glass, and partly combustible, burning freely. j 



A bed of shale six feet thick lay over some of the fossil trees and 

 probably protected them from being carbonized by the molten j 



rock, v ten it flowed over them. In the arched rock at the en- 

 train >f the harbor, fragments of wood much twisted and softer 

 than the silicified wood, are enclosed in the trap — numerous seams 

 of coal ire found in the trap from a few inches to four feet in 

 thickness, being thirty feet long in one place and one hundred and 

 fifty in another, where it was in view. The trap rock is of a 

 conglomerate structure, the enclosed fragments being exce. 1 vely 

 hard and ponderous. 



Cumberland bay, a deep inlet of many miles, m bounded by 

 trap rocks, m which are beautiful drusy cavities filled with fine 

 quartz crystals. Coal is found in this bay also, in a seam one 

 foot thick and ten feet long ; the coal is black and glossy, resem- 





two feet thick : it burned well and the crew cooked their provis- 



