12 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORKS 
landing “‘in a small cove a short distance to the northward 
of the Nine Pin Rock of Halley, the surf on all other parts 
being too great to admit of it without hazarding the de- 
struction of our boats.”’ Ross also writes that “ Horsburgh 
mentions ... ‘that the island abounds with wild pig and 
goats; one of the latter was seen. With the view to add 
somewhat to the stock of useful creatures, a cock and two 
hens were put on shore ; they seemed to enjoy the change, 
and, [ have no doubt, in so unfrequented a situation, and 
so delightful a climate, will quickly increase in numbers.’ 
I am afraid we did not find any of their descendants, nor 
those of the pig and goats.”’ 1 I doubt whether fowls would 
survive the land crabs very long. There are many wild 
birds on the island, however, which may feed the ship- 
wrecked, and also a depét left by the Government for that 
purpose. Another visitor was Knight, who wrote a book 
called The Cruise of the Alerte, concerning his efforts to 
discover the treasure which is said to have been left there. 
Scott also visited it in the Discovery in 1901, when a new 
petrel was found which was afterwards called ‘ G#strelata 
wilsoni,’ after the same ‘ Uncle Bill’ who was zoologist of 
both Scott’s Expeditions. 
And so it came about that on the evening of July 25 we 
furled sail and lay five miles from South Trinidad with all 
our preparations made for a very thorough search of this 
island of treasure. Everything was to be captured, alive 
or dead, animal, vegetable or mineral. 
At half-past five the next morning we were steaming 
slowly towards what looked like a quite impregnable face 
of rock, with bare cliffs standing straight out of the water, 
which, luckily for us, was comparatively smooth. As we 
coasted to try and find a landing-place the sun was rising 
behind the island, which reaches toa height of two thousand 
feet, and the jagged cliffs stood up finely against the rosy 
sky. 
Te dropped our anchor to the south of the island and 
a boat’s crew left to prospect for a landing-place, whilst 
Wilson seized the opportunity to shoot some birds as 
1 Ross, Voyage to the Southern Seas, vol. i. pp. 22-24. 
