NIMROD'S VOYAGE 



Road; close inshore is a line of rocks, and it is through a 

 break in these rocks that the landing-place is reached. 



"At 10 A.M. we anchored in eight fathoms about a 

 quarter of a mile from the shore. From the ship we 

 could see two huts situated on the lower ground at the 

 foot of the hill. A large rookery of penguins and some 

 sea elephants appeared the only life visible. A boat was 

 soon lowered and sent ashore in charge of the chief officer ; 

 the party succeeded in landing through the heavy surf 

 and the boat was hauled up into a bed of kelp. The men 

 scattered to collect specimens, &c. They found the slopes 

 of the hills covered with a long coarse grass. There are no 

 trees or even shrubs on the island. A small river running 

 down a valley formed by the hills made the low ground 

 swampy. Of the two huts the larger was evidently a 

 boiler-house for rendering down the blubber of the sea 

 elephants, and the smaller was the one in which the sealers 

 lived while engaged in this work during the season. Both 

 wore a very neglected and forlorn appearance. The sea 

 elephant, which is like a big seal and in some cases over 

 thirty feet long, is an awkward, clumsy animal and appar- 

 ently spends most of its time asleep in the long grass near 

 the water. It has large teeth which somewhat resemble 

 tusks, but although it appears very fierce is not dangerous. 

 The penguins, of which there were a great number, were 

 of the King genus, and they keep up a continuous squeak- 

 ing. The young birds were just fledged and were nearly 

 ready to take to the water. 



*' We remained at anchor here for the night and at 

 day-break, which was not till eight o'clock, we steamed 

 along the coast northwards. There was a fresh north- 

 west wind, and it came down the hill-sides in violent gusts, 

 called by the whalers ' willywaws,' raising a sheet of foam 

 on the water. About six miles up the coast there is a 



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