930 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June 17, 1911. 
Lands of the Antarctic 
By GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL 
fin these modern days it seems that few spots remain on the earth’s surface that are not being utilized 
by man, and fewer still where man has not penetrated and reported something on their life and topography. 
The North I’nle has been found, and brave efforts are made to reach the South Pole. Within the last few 
years the Dark Continent has been opened up from many sides, and, except in portions of the north, is 
coming to he full of civilized people. The Arctic regions of Alaska have been overrun by hordes of pros¬ 
pectors, miners and settlers. Railways are being built through portions of America a few years ago hardly 
known. South America supports a large and constantly growing population. Perhaps only in the most arid 
regions of Asia, or among the stupendous mountain peaks of the Andes or Himalayas, are there still locked 
secrets about the main physical features of the earth’s surface. 
More astonishing, perhaps, than anything else is the way in which the extreme northern and southern 
portions of the earth’s surface are being turned to man’s account. It is announced that a variety of crops 
may be grown in interior Alaska, and that in Canada wheat may ripen almost as far north as the land of little 
sticks. Far away in the South Seas and toward the Pole are the fertile islands of New Zealand, and still 
beyond them those barren regions whose character is indicated by the name of the largest member of the group. 
Desolation Island—the Kerguelen Archipelago. Even these islands are to be subdued by man and to contribute 
to his support. 
Here are two accounts, separated by thirty years of time, which show interesting contrasts.] 
the EXPLOITATION of desolation island. 
ERGUELEN or Desolation Island is one 
of a small archipelago which lies about 
midway between Australia and Cape of 
Good Hope near the borders of the Antarctic 
Ocean. It is the chief island of this group and 
contains over 1,200,000 acres. It is largely 
covered with mountains, between which steep- 
sided valleys run down to the sea, and a con¬ 
siderable area in the center of the island is 
covered with extensive snow fields, from which 
many glaciers reach the stilt water. The moun¬ 
tains range from 2,400 to over 6,000 feet in 
height, the coast line is irregular, and there are 
many well sheltered deep and safe harbors. The 
scenery is wonderfully beautiful. Kerguelen 
Island was discovered in 1772 by a French navi¬ 
gator, Kerguelen Tremarec, who supposed that 
he had discovered a great southern continent. 
It was visited by Capt Cook and by Sir James 
C. Ross, and in 1874 a number of scientific ex¬ 
peditions called there for the purpose of observ¬ 
ing the transit of Venus. 
The center of the island has not been ex¬ 
plored, but it is known that there is no timber 
on the island, though at one time it must have 
been thickly clothed with forest and other vege¬ 
tation, which has been destroyed by volcanic 
action and possibly by the submergence of the 
land. Situated at a great distance from any 
other land, the island possesses many biological 
features of interest. The birds are almost all 
sea fowl—penguins of various species, a teal 
duck peculiar to Kerguelen and to the Crozets, 
together with a multitude of petrels, gulls, alba¬ 
trosses, terns and a sheathbill. 
Though in old times a great resort for whalers 
and sealers, of late years it had been little 
visited by such ships. Fur seals were once 
found there and so, too, arc elephant seals, 
those curious and great beasts which have often 
been so nearly exterminated for the oil they 
yield. The climate is very moist, and the growth 
of grasses, mosses and other plants luxuriant. 
A peculiar plant is the Kerguelen cabbage which 
grows everywhere. It looks somewhat like a 
garden cabbage and its roots are partly above 
ground. 
In the struggle to find new’ lands to settle, 
Kerguelen Island was long overlooked. This is 
not strange since it lies in latitude about 49 0 
and was long reported as possessing an arctic 
.climate and being covered only with moss. 
Nevertheless, for a number of years two 
Frenchmen, brothers named Bossicre, have 
been endeavoring to interest the French Gov¬ 
ernment and French capital in exploiting the 
island. It came about in this wise. The 
brothers had spent the years 1881 and 1883 in 
Southern Patagonia, where they found the con¬ 
ditions very favorable to the industry of sheep 
raising. Millions of sheep are now growm on 
the pasturage of Patagonia and the plains of 
Northern Tierra del Fuego, lands formerly 
supposed to be mere deserts. This discovery 
suggested to the brothers the possibilities ot 
Kerguelen, and they endeavored to secure the 
aid of the French Government for this enter¬ 
prise. The Government declined to furnish 
financial aid, but gave them a concession of the 
islands and all accruing profits for a term of 
fifty years. Rene Bossiere, the elder brother, 
is a ship owner, and his father was the last 
Frenchman engaged in whaling, which has not 
been practiced by the French for nearly fifty 
years. 
The brothers, after a study of conditions in 
Patagonia, succeeded in enlisting from French 
capitalists financial support to the amount of 
$150,000. An expedition with two small vessels 
was sent to the island and Rene Bossiere, who 
had gone to Patagonia, was to have been picked 
up at Magellan Straits. He waited there three 
months, only to learn that the timid commander 
of the ships had turned back to France, decid¬ 
ing that he had started too late in the season. 
This failure so discouraged the French capital¬ 
ists that they withdrew their support. Never¬ 
theless, the brothers set to work to do it all 
over again, pointing out especially the possibil¬ 
ities of the whale fisheries in the waters near 
Kerguelen. 
Finally some Norwegians took an interest in 
the matter and money was raised to fit out two 
small French whalers, while the Norwegians 
sent a steamer of two thousand tons burden. 
The Bossiere vessels reached there and landed 
and turned loose some stock as an experiment 
—twenty ewes, two rams, three horses and 
some hogs. Feed was found in abundance; 
enough to support many thousands of sheep. 
The sheep and hogs were left there and in the 
following year the sheep were found to have 
doubled, and the lambs seemed strong and 
hardy. The fodder provided for the hogs was 
neglected, the animals eating the roots of the 
Kerguelen cabbage. The winters are by no 
means severe, the mean temperature being but 
little under the freezing point; in fact, Mr. Rene 
Bossiere describes the climate as somewhat re¬ 
sembling continuous autumn. The lowest tem¬ 
perature observed by two men who spent the 
winter of 1908-09 on the island was —17.6 F. 
The whale fishery has proved very successful, 
for 232 whales were captured during the first 
season. Among them was a whalebone whale, 
a species which had been supposed to be extinct 
in Southern waters. The seal fishery is likely 
to be important and the capture of sea ele¬ 
phants, which are reported to be extraordinar¬ 
ily abundant, may be very profitable. Coal has 
long been known to exist on the island, but 
the extent and value of the deposits have not 
yet been determined. The coal is good enough 
to burn well in stoves and in the furnaces of 
the steamers, and will thus furnish fuel for the 
inhabitants of the island. 
On the whole, however, the brightest pros¬ 
pects for success and profit seems to lie in the 
breeding of animals. Sheep, cattle and hogs 
ought to do well. 
cast away on heard's island. 
A very different story of the Kerguelen Archi¬ 
pelago—a tale of thirty years ago—was published 
long since in Forest and Stream and deals 
chiefly with Heard’s Island, which lies a little 
to the south of Kerguelen Island but has the 
same climate and similar conditions. It is told 
by John Easmond, the second officer of the bark 
Trinity, 317 tons burden, which sailed from New 
London, June 18, 1880. The ship was owned 
by Lawrence & Co. She had fifteen hands. At 
the Cape Verde Islands nineteen Portuguese 
negroes were shipped. She was bound for 
Heard’s Island for sea elephant oil. 
Easmond was an old seafaring man, born in 
Newfoundland in 1835. and more accustomed to 
making entries in a ship’s log than to writing 
manuscript for the printer. His quaint English 
reads almost like that of De Foe, and his ac¬ 
count might be a chapter taken from Robinson 
Crusoe. 
The old Trinity had fair weather until she 
reached latitude 42 0 south, “and then we had 
to encounter hurricanes, heavy gales and strong 
storms of sleet, hail and rain at times, with 
sea according, but the old Trinity braved it 
well.” Further to the southward the weather 
grew worse, but when it was not blowing hard 
“we could see the penguins in great quantities 
in the water, going after the fashion of leap 
frog, and at night, in fair weather, their splash¬ 
ing could be heard at the distance of half a mile.” 
They reached the island of Desolation, but be¬ 
fore they could make harbor a hurricane came 
up and drove them about seventy miles to the 
southeast. At last, however. Sept. 4, 1880, they 
moored ship in safely in five fathoms of water 
at Pot Harbor. Plere they remained some little 
time, sending down their upper spars and mak¬ 
ing ship light for anchorage. They landed three 
month’s provisions, and then awaited a favor¬ 
able time to sail for Heard’s Island, which they 
reached on Oct. 2, at Crinton Bay. There they 
landed four men, with three months’ provisions 
and left them to kill what elephants they could 
find, and pack the blubber in casks. The ship 
was to return and take them off about the first 
of January, 1881. 
