340 
CRUISE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
1868, placed an iron tablet, with the following in 
scription : — * 
3Eu of 
ALEXANDER SELKIRK, Mariner, 
A native of Lagos, in the County of Fife, Scotland, 
Who wns on this Island in complete solitude 
for four years and four months. 
He was landed from the Cinque Ports Galley, 96 tons, 
16 guns, a.d. 1704, and was taken off in the 
Dulce privateer, 12 Feb. 1709. 
He died Lieutenant of the Weymouth, a.d. 1723, 
Aged 47 years. 
This tablet is erected near Selkirk’s look-out by 
Commodore Powell and Officers of 
H.M.S. Topaze, a.d. 1868. 
Naturalists and others were busily engaged collect- 
ing birds and specimens, and a few photographs 
were obtained ; and, what was very acceptable after 
the long voyage, plenty of fresh food, for the bay 
proved a most prolific fishing-ground, and from the 
settlers, beef, &c., of excellent quality was supplied. 
The island is only some ten or twelve miles long, 
by four broad. The shore is formed by a steep, 
dark bare rock, rising up some 800 or 900 feet, 
through which wild ravines run, giving here and 
there views of grassy plains and verdant valleys of 
considerable extent, thickly wooded with a luxuriant 
foliage of great variety, amongst which were notice- 
able great numbers of peach-trees, which are said to 
have been planted by Lord Anson in 1741, when on 
his famous voyage round the world. Figs, straw- 
