468 G. E. Verrill — Some Birds and Eggs collected at 



1888. GOUGH ISLAND. 



Aug. 22nd. Sighted the island at 3 a. m. and got to it at noon. Had good luck in 



getting our things ashore.* I have come ashore with 3 men, so we 



are 12 in all. 

 " 23rd. TVe live in an old house that some English sealing party built years 



ago. 

 " 25th. There are plenty of mice here. [Probably M. musculus introduced]. 

 " 26th. • Got 2 sea hens \_StercorariiLs antarcticus]. 

 " 28th. Got 2 sea hens. These birds are only good for their feathers. 

 " 31st. Got 2 seal. The walking is very bad. 

 Sept, 1st. Caught a good quanity of fish. There are a number of kinds here and 



it is splendid fishing. 

 " 7th. There were no seal in the rookery to-day. The walking is very bad. 



The molly mokes have commenced to make their nests. 

 " 8th. To-day the wind is very strong JsT. E. with thick fog and rain. Can do 



nothing but stay in the cave. "We live on youag albatross [D. 



exulons] known as gooneys. 

 " 11th. "We slept very cold as we were wet through last night. This afternoon 



shot 5 sea hens ; 4 whales in sight. Got one Nellie's eg^ [ Ossifraga 



gig anted]. 

 " 13th. We took a boat and pulled around the island. We saw about 6 



seal, but it was too rough to land and the wind was breezing up, so 



we had all we could do to get around back again. I should think it 



might be about 18 miles around the island. Saw 3 wliales. Got 2 



sea hens. 

 " 14th. "Went to a penguin rookery. Got 1 egg, this is the first [Eudyptes 



chrysocome]. Saw 2 whales. 

 " 16th. Got two eggs of penguins. 



" 17th. Got 10 penguin eggs. Got 1 sea hen. Saw a large whale. 

 '* I8th. The men got 30 eggs. The place is not far, but we have to use a rope 



to get down where the penguins are. 

 " I9th. "We got about 50 eggs. 



** 20th. The men got about 150 eggs. Got 3 sea hens. 

 " 22nd. The men got about 400 eggs. 

 " 24th. Went off and got a quanity of eggs with the boat. Also got 8 large fish 



weighing from 8 to 20 lbs. They were very plentiful, did not care 



to catch more. Got 9 sea hens. We have now about 3000 eggs 



salted, about 1700 in barrels. Got a sea hen's egg. 

 " 25th. The fish we caught yesterday are splendid. Got 9 sea hens. 

 " 27th. Got about 500 penguin eggs and a few molly moke eggs [TJialassogeron 



eximius]. Got 13 sea hens. 



* The difficulty of landing here will be seen from the fact that they were from 

 Aug. 1st, when they were "close to the island," till Aug. 22nd, before they were able 

 to get ashore, though they were often in sight of it and even lay to, close to it, some 

 of the time, but they had such bad gales, rough seas, and unfavorable winds that 

 they could not safely land. 



