FOREST and stream 
289 
Fascinating Study of the Antarctic’s Surplus Fauna 
stated already the exnedition HiviHpH mnrl i f A i s « - 
As stated already the expedition was divided 
into sections, some of which did not endeavor to 
penetrate the extremes of latitude, but estab¬ 
lished stations on the outskirts of the Antarc¬ 
tic. One of these was on Macquarie Island, 0 
bleak rock outpost nearly one thousand miles 
south of New Zealand, and which is accessible to 
sealers, egg hunters, etc. 
G. F. Ainsworth, the scientist and naturalist 
who had charge of this section, resided with his 
modity when refined has a market value of from 
£20 to £25 per tun, it will be seen that the in j 
dustry is a profitable one. The cows being 
small never have a very thick coating of blub¬ 
ber, but I have seen bulls with blubber to a 
depth of eight inches, and some of them yield 
nearly two thousand pounds, though I should es¬ 
timate the average yield at about one thousand 
one hundred pounds. The sealers in the early 
days used to obtain the oil by cutting the blub- 
party for nearly three years on the island, and 
his chapter of the expedition fs one that con¬ 
tributes in nearly every page something new to 
natural history. Speaking of the herds of sea 
elephants encountered, Professor Ainsworth says : 
“The sealers always gave the animals time to 
form their rookeries and then killed the bulls 
for oil. A well-conditioned full-grown animal 
ber up into very small pieces and melting it down 
in ‘try’ pots. These pots, many of which may 
be still seen about the island, were made of very 
thick iron and the fuel used was the 
re 
fuse 
"-- juu-giuwu dlllllldl 
yields about half a tun of oil, and as the corn- 
taken from the pot itself. In the present method 
steam digestors are used, and the oil from the 
melted blubber is drawn off, after steam has 
been passing for twelve hours. Coal is brought 
down by the sealing-vessel to be used as fuel. 
The ‘elephant season’ lasts only about thre- 
months, and within about four weeks of its con 
elusion, the ‘penguin season’ begins; the sam, 
gang of men being employed as a rule. Th< 
most difficult operation in connection with botl 
of these industries is undoubtedly the loading 
and unloading of the vessel. 
“About the middle of the month the Roya! 
penguins commenced to lay, and on the 17th 
Sandell and I went to their rookeries. 
From careful observation I should say that 
the number of birds killed during the season 
would total one hundred and fifty thousand 
The method of killing-by blows from a heavy 
club— is about as humane as any that could 
. e ad °P ted - a nd the yearly increase in numbers 
m the only rookeries that are being worked is 
certainly greater than the decrease due to the 
depredations of the sealers. Apart from this, 
there are acres of rookeries on the island from 
which not a single bird is taken, and they go on 
year after year adding thousands upon thou¬ 
sands to their already vast numbers. 
At the end of June, Blake and I surveyed all 
the ^penquin rookeries round about ‘The Nug¬ 
gets’ and, allowing a bird to the square foot, 
found that there must have been about half a 
million birds in the area. The sealers kill birds 
from these rookeries to the number of about 
one hundred and thirty thousand yearly, so that 
it would seem reasonable to suppose that de¬ 
spite this fact, there must be an annual increase 
of about one hundred thousand birds” 
Will the Penguin become extinct as have the 
meat Auk and so many other species of our 
bud life. It seems impossible that such a 
calamity will befall, but it is to be remembered 
iat not over two hundred years ago the Great 
Auk was almost as numerous in the Northern 
errnsphere as the Penguin now is in the Ant- 
archc. Anthony Parkhurst, in 1518, wrote- 
rese birds (the Great Auk) are also called 
Penguin and cannot flie; there is more meate in 
tla e t Ih ^ a gOOSe ‘ The French ™n 
tore of fl T -1 u grand baie bHn S a 
o of flesh with them but victuall themselves 
always with these birdes ” 
writing a 
are ’ s Penguin (the Great Auk) 
but a t geese and fly not for they have 
b t a little short wing and they multiply' so in¬ 
finitely upon a certain flat island that men drive 
at a m time” ’’ nt ° ^ b ° atS by hundreds 
th a T r h th W ° rk ° f eXtemination was s ° thorough 
that the museums of the Northern Hemisphere 
rrTv p ' cim “ s - xhe iast bird ™ 
T , , 441 t ” the museum at Copenhagen 
That was the end of the Great Auk. Let us 
hope that the Penguin wil , „ ot suff „ a simi ” 
' ! Possesses a value commercially and no 
matter how unlimited may be its number at 
Tmore fi^ht g °i the Way ° f the Auk unIess 
en lgitened sentiment expressed through 
governmenta 1 action is enforced to preserve it. 
(The Home of the Blizzard; by Sir Douglas 
Maw son, J. B. Lippmcott Co., 2 vols., $9.00.) 
