64 
FROM CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO SYDNEY. 
promontory to which it originally belonged. Further up the harbour, an enormous boulder 
overhangs the narrow sheet of water, apparently threatening to fall down at any moment and 
block it up. A gently-sloping beach, the site of Sir James- Ross’s magnetic observatory, 
closes in the harbour towards the w^est. This is the favourite resort of the penguin, whose 
numerous hosts are for ever marching up and down the black-sanded beach, now presenting 
their white-breasted fronts, now wheeling round as if by word of command, and looking like 
so many black-coated pygmies. A rivulet carves its winding course through the sands, and 
near this spot we found a sea-elephant and its young basking in the sun. The poor creatures, 
despite their large expressive eyes and angry snorts, fell victims to the zeal of our naturalists. 
Following the banks of this little river, we arrived at a small lake in possession of numerous 
flocks of sea-birds. A scramble over the rocks at the further end of the lake brought us to 
the edge of a precipice not much less than a thousand feet high, and here we found ourselves 
on the brink of a deep chasm, an inlet of the sea, which penetrates the island from the side 
opposite to Christmas Harbour. Far below, the birds, 
“ That winged the midway air, 
Showed scarce so gross as beetles ; ” 
and from the bottom came the sound of the roaring and foaming waves, busy at their never- 
ending work of gradual destruction. Just in the offing we could see Rolland Island, one of 
the Cloudy group, very appropriately so called, since only at intervals do they emerge from 
the misty veil behind which they lie hidden. 
One of the principal objects for which the “ Challenger ” had been ordered to visit 
Kerguelen was to ascertain the most eligible stations for the intended observations of the 
transit of Venus. On this account, our stay in this pleasant and interesting harbour was 
cut short, and at dawn of the following day, the 8th January, we were on our way southwards. 
During the day we were mostly in sight of the numerous forelands which jut out from the 
deeply-indented east coast of Kerguelen. Behind them were visible from time to time 
mountain ranges covered with snow, and glaciers sloping to the sea. In the course 
of the afternoon Kent Island was identified, and then we saw before us the remarkable 
cluster of mountains situated between Royal Sound and Betsy Cove, and which may fairly 
be called the Kerguelen Alps. We recognised the Chimney Top Mountain on the left, and 
Mount Campbell on the right, both so styled and used as landmarks by earlier navigators, 
chiefly whalers. In the subsequent survey made by the officers of H.M.S. “Challenger,” the 
principal summits received well-known names, such as Mount Lyell, Mount Hooker, Mount 
Crozier, and others. The last-named eminence rises to 3250 feet, and its snow-covered peak 
is the monarch of the whole group. Before sunset we were at anchor in Betsy Cove. 
Betsy Cove is separated by steep rocky promontories from Accessible Bay in the east 
and Cascade Reach in the west—the three inlets forming the landward branches of a wide 
bay which opens towards the north, while to the south rise the heights already referred to as 
the Kerguelen Alps. 
