162 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



After cutting away some scrub we then found the view from 

 this culminating point of the group one of exceeding beauty. At 

 our feet lay stretched a miniature continent, with its mountains, 

 plains, forests, lakes, and bays. I have often seen greater 

 distances from higher altitudes, but never a prettier or more 

 com, rehensive view than this. We may see a high mountain 

 or large plain or lake without any sense of completeness, but 

 here, though the scale was small, everything was present to 

 make a perfect whole. 



Could this have been the country of Gulliver's Liliputians ? 

 For was he not driven by a violent storm to the " north-west of 

 Van Diemen's Land" when he fell in with these immortal pigmies? 

 To them this island would have seemed a continent of vast 

 extent. Owing to a slight mist to seaward King Island was not 

 seen, but all the Western Straits islands were distinctly visible. 

 Due west lay Barren Island, and beyond it Albatross, v^^ith its 

 grim cliffs, storm-swept, with no land to seaward nearer than 

 Kerguelen. Now and then, at rare intervals, some adventurous 

 seaman, in quest of feathers or guano, has, at no small risk from 

 breakers and strong currents, landed on its rocky shore, and then 

 it lapses again into its usual loneliness. More to the south lay 

 the Pyramid, upon which the Empress of China was lately 

 wrecked. But, though the weather was fine, the crew could not 

 effect a landing. Apparently near the Pyramid are the North and 

 South Black Rocks. Further landwards are Steep Head, Tre- 

 foil, the Doughboys, the Tomaton Shoal, the Petrels, Walker's, 

 and Robbins's islands, and the Woolnorth estate, with Mount 

 Cameron in the background. To the eastward was Circular 

 Head, Rocky and Table Capes, and the mainland beyond. Far 

 away from the north came faint sounds of the waves as they broke 

 on shore, and further still were a few white specks of Albatross — 

 everywhere else the wide sea ! I do not believe anyone had been 

 there before us ; there was no sign or mark, or anything which 

 might lead us to suppose so. We stayed an hour and had a little 

 damper, cheese, and a pipe, and then retraced our steps to the 

 tent, which we reached by six o'clock, after an absence of thirteen 

 hours. 



The next morning we sailed to Penguin Rocks, where we 

 found the Mutton Birds had commenced work in earnest. This 

 small island, of granitic formation, was literally honeycombed 

 with their burrows ; every hole contained a bird and an egg. The 

 birds made no attempt to fly away when pulled out of their holes, 

 but ran about our feet and vanished into the first burrow they 

 could find, or began to scratch for themselves in a new place. 

 Both birds and eggs are too well known to need description. 

 Thousands of eggs are taken yearly, and hundreds of thousands of 

 birds, for the various markets, and yet there seems to be no 



