93 
CRUISE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
utensils. For arms, we were in possession of a short Enfield 
muzzle-loading rifle, an old German fowling-piece, two pounds 
and a half of powder (and to this the mate of the whaler 
added one pound of blasting powder), two hundred bullets, 
and sufficient lead with which we made one hundred bullets 
more ; four sheath knives (such as are used by sailors), a saw, 
a ft;W nails, hammer, two chisels, some twine, two or three 
gimlets, a door, three spars for a roof, a glazed sash for a 
window, and two iron buckets. Our clothes were in chests ; 
and we brought covers which were easily filled with birds* 
feathers, and made good beds. On the 27th November 
1871, we came ashore on the west side of the island, the 
whaler leaving in a quarter of an hour’s time, after giving 
us a few potatoes for seed — and we had brought with us 
seeds of nearly all the common garden vegetables. A bitch 
and three pups accompanied us. 
My brother at once started in search of goats or pigs, 
climbing, by the aid of the tussack grass, the side of the 
cliff* to the top of the island. He was too tired to return 
that night, and failed to shoot any game. The next day he 
rejoined me, and we built a hut for shelter. The whaler 
crew had hauled our boat up for us. After a day’s rest we 
loth in company went after game, and shot a pig, and saw 
but failed to get near any goats. Four days after landing 
we received a visit from sixteen men, in two boats, from 
Tristan d’Acunha — which island was cleared of men with 
the exception of two. The sealing season had set in, and 
this was their yearly visit, hastened after learning from the 
captain of the Java that we had landed and were in possession 
of four boxes and letters from St. Helena for the islanders. 
The Java , after leaving us, had been becalmed off Tristan, 
and during the night a boat had come off to her to procure 
supplies. The captain of the Java , so the men told me, 
refused to barter with them, being so short a time from port. 
As soon as our goods were housed, it was our intention to 
