66 
FROM CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO SYDNEY. 
principally upon the seeds of the Kerguelen cabbage, the only vegetable found on this island, 
with the exception of a sort of water-cress, which can be used as human food. Our men 
collected the cabbage in boatfuls, and seemed to relish it very much. The specimen placed 
on the officers’ table did not meet with the same approbation, being rather bitter to the 
taste. As furnishing a supply of fresh vegetable food to a ship’s crew, deprived perhaps 
for months of that indispensable article of diet, the Kerguelen cabbage is priceless. In the 
hope of adding a useful plant to our kitchen-garden, a quantity of seed, carefully gathered 
and packed, was sent home; but the experiments made in the Royal Botanic Gardens in 
Kew and in Edinburgh do not seem to have afforded any satisfactory result; nor is this 
surprising, as the conditions of soil and of climate in Kerguelen are not easily found 
elsewhere. The massive seed-stalks of this remarkable plant, protruding in large numbers 
from the carpet of green moss, form a characteristic feature in the landscape of this island. 
Kerguelen has recently attracted the notice of meteorologists as possessing the lowest 
range of annual variation of temperature, that is to say, as enjoying the most uniform 
climate in the world—no doubt due to its great distance from any large continent, a 
circumstance which imparts to its climate the uniformity of oceanic temperatures. The 
“ Challenger’s ” visit, which took, place in the summer of this hemisphere, was remarkably 
favoured by fine weather, although during her several cruises along the east and south 
coasts of the island she was certain to find herself surrounded by stormy seas as soon as 
she left the kindly shelter of the shore. Even here, sudden squalls are not unfrequent. One 
of these, which occurred early on the 12th, nearly drove our ship on the rocks. At 2 p.m. 
on this day the thermometer in the shade rose to I 4°.4 C. (58° F.)—the temperature 
registered a year before on the same day and at the same hour in the river Tagus. 
In the evening of the 13th a small schooner under sail quietly slipped past us into 
the bay. This was an American whaler, the “ Emma Jane,” from New London, U.S. 
Accustomed as one is to associate with ocean voyages ships of large tonnage, it is a 
little surprising to see the small craft in which these hardy sailors venture to navigate 
the roughest and most inhospitable seas. The arrival of the schooner was quite an event, 
as we had not seen a new face for nearly a month. We became indebted to her captain for 
much valuable information about the Heard and Macdonald Islands, which we intended to 
visit, and for a copy of a chart of Kerguelen—one of those rough manuscript charts 
compiled by whalers. The storm-beaten west coast of Kerguelen has not yet been surveyed. 
It appears, from the outlines of the whaler’s chart, that this coast is as deeply indented by 
bays and inlets as the east and south coasts ; and that the mainland of Kerguelen is almost 
divided into separate islands by fiords, which in some places approach so near to each other 
that a boat may be dragged across the narrow and level isthmus. A volcano is shown to 
exist upon the west coast in about long. 69° E., lat. 49 0 30' S., as well as several hot 
springs in that and other parts of the island. The remarkable and, from a geological 
point of view, highly interesting features of Kerguelen Land would justify the expense of 
a complete survey. 
