388 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [18] 



The naturalists, with a party of volunteers, left for the purpose of shore 

 collecting, as soon as the anchor was down, returning toward sunset, 

 with fair results. A seining party took sufficient mullet to supply the 

 ship, but caught very few of the other species. Frequent showers made 

 this work rather disagreeable, but did not deter the naturalists or vol- 

 unteers, who, after their long confinement on board ship, were wild for 

 a run on shore. 



The collectors left at daylight the following morning, and returned a 

 little before noon, well satisfied with their first exploration on the coast 

 of Patagonia. We got under way at 1 p. m. and lowered the trawl a 

 few minutes later in 20 fathoms, sand and pebbles, making a successful 

 haul j then steamed through the second Narrows, and at 3.40 p. m. 

 anchored in 7 fathoms off the south side of Elizabeth Island. A breeze 

 had sprung up from the southwest as we were getting under way, which 

 increased rapidly to a moderate gale. It continued until we reached 

 our anchorage, and prevented further work with trawl or dredge. 



A large party of collectors left as soon as the anchor was down, and 

 on their return reported a rich field for exploration. There was a vari- 

 ety of birds on the island, including ducks and' wild geese. Bernicla 

 Magellanica was plentiful, and on the southeast extremity was a tern 

 rookery, where millions of the pretty little sea-birds were nesting. It 

 was located on a plateau about 20 feet above the sea, and covered many 

 acres. The nests were on the ground, and exceedingly simple in struct- 

 ure, being composed of a little grass and a few dried twigs, hardly suf- 

 ficient to keep the eggs from rolling about. They contained from 1 to 

 3 eggs, and were so close together that it required the greatest care to 

 walk among them without crushing eggs or the young birds that thickly 

 covered the ground. The old birds abandoned their nests as the ex- 

 ploring party approached, literally filling the air, and scolding at the 

 top of their piercing voices, the united protest of these millions of throats 

 being little short of deafening. This, in addition to other disagreeable 

 features, such as their locality directly beneath countless numbers of 

 sea-birds frightened from their nests, was sufficient incentive for the 

 explorers to seek other quarters as quickly as possible. 



Elizabeth Island is now occupied as a sheep ranch. It has not been 

 inhabited by Indians for many years, although the early Dutch navi- 

 gators reported them on the island in considerable numbers, and nu- 

 merous shell-heaps of great extent covered with soil from 6 inches to 3 

 feet in depth indicate the existence of a large population at some remote 

 period. 



January 20 was a pleasant day, and we made the most of it by 

 sending a strong working party on shore under the direction of Professor 

 Lee, with shovels, to excavate and explore shell-heaps. Messrs. Town- 

 send, Miller, and myself went to Sta. Marta Island in the hope of find- 

 ing a colony of penguins or afew antarctic sea-lions, but we encountered 

 instead a rookery of cormorants, covering several acres on the central 



