14 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
When the Discovery was here Wilson saw a fish come out 
of the sea, seize a land crab about eighteen inches away and 
take it back into the water. 
‘‘ The land crabs were all over the place in thousands; 
it seems probable that their chief enemies are themselves. 
They are regular cannibals. 
‘Then we did a real long climb northwards, over rocks 
and tufty grass till 1.30 p.m. From the point we had 
reached we could see both sides of the island, and the 
little Martin Vas islands in the distance. 
“We found lots of little tern and terns’ eggs, lying out 
on the bare rock with no nest at all. Hooper also brought 
us two little gannets—all fluffy, but even at this age larger 
thanarook. As we got further up we began to come across 
the fossilized trees for which the island is well known. 
“‘ Four or five Captain biscuits made an excellent lunch, 
and afterwards we started to the real top of the island, a hill 
rising to the west of us. It was covered with a high scrubby 
bush and rocks, and was quite thick; in fact there was 
more vegetation here than on all the rest we had seen, and 
in making our way through it we had to keep calling in 
order to keep touch with one another. 
“The tree ferns were numerous, but stunted. The gan- 
nets were sleeping on the tops of the bushes, and some of 
the crabs had climbed up the bushes and were sunning 
themselves on the top. These crabs were round us in thou- 
sands—I counted seven watching me out of one crack 
between two rocks. 
“We sat down under the lee of the summit, and thought 
it would not be bad to be thrown away on a desert island, 
little thinking how near we were to being stranded, for a 
time at any rate. 
“The crabs gathered round us ina circle, with their eyes 
turning towards us—as if they were waiting for us to die to 
come and eat us. One big fellow left his place in the circle 
and waddled up to my feet and examined my boots. First 
with one claw and then with the other he took a taste of 
my boot. He went away obviously disgusted: one could 
almost see him shake his head. 
