THE KERGUELEN ISLES 
235 
{^EubalcBfia australis) were seen in great numbers; every¬ 
where along the coast are to be found the bleached 
skulls and other osteological remains of these animals, 
left by the whale-fishers after stripping off the blubber. 
For a long time past, however, this region has been im¬ 
poverished, as the whales, pursued with over-eagerness, 
have become more wary and avoid this portion of the 
ocean. The only mammal dwelling in the interior of the 
land is the rabbit, which was probably introduced acciden¬ 
tally by recent expeditions, and has since greatly mul¬ 
tiplied. The sailors of the ‘"Eure” found the ground at 
Gazelle Bay honeycombed with their holes, and in a 
short time killed more than a thousand rabbits. 
Among oceanic birds, the king-penguins generally 
appear in November to visit their breeding-places, but 
leave Kerguelen Land in March. Besides Apte 7 iodytes 
lougirostris another smaller species [A. tce^iiatus) occurs. 
The frequency with which these animals have been cap¬ 
tured has seriously diminished their numbers. The list 
of birds in the island also includes petrels, sheath-bills 
(Chionis minoj^), terns, dominican gulls [Larus do 77 imicauus) 
albatrosses, cormorants [Phalacrocorax vennicosus)^ and the 
singular Kerguelen duck [Querqitedtda Eatofii)^ which occurs 
elsewhere only on the Crozet Isles and South Georgia. 
The Insecta shew a remarkable adaptation to local con¬ 
ditions in their almost entire inability to fly, which pre 
vents their being carried away by the wind. Thus a 
flightless gnat [Halyritus ai^iphibius) lives on the coast, 
and a brown fly which frequents the plants in great 
numbers, and bears the scientific name of Calycopieryx 
Moseleyi^ has very stunted wings. 
That these islands, endowed with natural resources of 
so miserable a character, should never have been per¬ 
manently settled by man, is easily explicable in spite of 
their great extent. Even the first discoverer wrote of 
Kerguelen, in his diary, that he would rather live in Ice- 
