Unfortunately, however, the line had become somewhat decomposed by moisture, and gave way at 6,170 fathoms (37,020 English feet) while still running out, so that on this occasion also, we could only tell that bottom had _not_ been reached with the portion of the line paid out.

The times occupied by the line in running out were as follows:--

1st 1000 fathoms 15 minutes 36 seconds.

2nd " " 26 " 59 "

3rd " " 34 " 20 "

4th " " 43 " 25 "

5th " " 61 " 5 "

6th " " 75 " 55 "

And the last 170 " 11 " 40 "

____ ______________________ Total 6,170 " 4 hours 29 minutes.

To the apparatus two 30-lbs. shot were attached, and the first 100 fathoms of line were doubled. By this observation we satisfied ourselves that such soundings are only successful when none but the best materials are employed, and, moreover, that the line becomes deteriorated in an extraordinary degree by long stowage on boardship, so that it is better in long voyages not to take such large supplies of line, but to adopt most stringent measures to prevent its being weakened by damp. Very probably a light coating of tar over the line would tend to keep it in good preservation, and it also seems advisable proportionately to strengthen the first 500 or 1000 fathoms.

On the 18th November the look-out man descried from the main topgallant mast-head the Island of St. Paul, the goal of our wishes, the object which had so long occupied our thoughts, and on which our scientific capabilities were to be called into enviable activity. The necessary arrangements were completed for facilitating astronomical observations, the instruments and other necessaries taken out and got in readiness to be conveyed to the island, and the various stations and duties of the different members specified, so as to admit of the observations being completed in the shortest possible time.

On the 19th November, at daybreak, we found ourselves close in with St.

Paul's Island, while on our port-side the outline of New Amsterdam was visible in the shape of two lofty peaks on the horizon. As the wind blew from the N.W., we kept the ship's course past the north promontory of the island, and ranged along the eastern side to the selected anchoring ground. As we doubled the northernmost point, the conical-shaped Nine-Pin Rock came into view, while the high and precipitous margin of the island in the N.E. with the entrance into the crater became visible. How great, however, was our astonishment, when we observed some neatly laid-out terraces, of a fresher green hue than were observed in the upper table-lands of the island! These were evidently spots cultivated by former or present residents in the island. But no traces of habitation were seen, whether of mankind or of the seal. Only flights of albatrosses, bryons, ospreys, and sea-swallows, with now and then the protracted screams (like human groans) of immense flights of penguins, those singular-looking sea-birds, which awaken so deep an interest alike for their striking appearance as by their mode of life.

An examination of the rock of the island showed layers of black lava, alternating with yellow and red tufa, which seemed stratified regularly from the rim of the crater to the extreme circ.u.mference of the island.

"Thirty fathoms, and no bottom," sung the wearied leadsman; and presently, "Thirty fathoms,"--and a few minutes before 9 A.M. the anchor rattled out, on the 24th day after we left Simon's Bay, after retracing our steps Eastward some 3000 miles. Our anchorage, as we afterwards became aware, was not the best possible, as we ought to have lain closer in to the island. But when one anchors nearer the land in a less depth of water, one is by no means more protected from storms sweeping in from seawards, to which the entire eastern half of the island lies exposed. Only on the west side does the island, with the steep margin of the crater some 700 or 800 feet high, afford any protection against the west winds, which, however, seldom blow here.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARRIVAL AT ST. PAUL.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW OF ST. PAUL.]

VII.

The Islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam,

IN THE SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN.

Former History.--Importance of the situation of St. Paul.-- Present inhabitants.--Preliminary observations.--To whom does the Island belong?--Fisheries.--Hot springs.--Singular experiment.--Penguins.--Disembarkation.--Inclement weather.-- Remarks on the climate of the Island.--Cultivation of European vegetables.--Animal life.--Library in a Fisherman's hut.-- Narrative of old Viot.--Re-embarkation.--An official doc.u.ment left behind.--Some results obtained during the stay of the Expedition.--Visit to the Island of Amsterdam.--Whalers.-- Search for a Landing-place.--Remarks on the Natural History of the Island.--A Conflagration.--Comparison of the two islands.-- A _rencontre_ at sea.--Trade-wind.--Christmas at sea.--"A man overboard."--Cingalese canoe.--Arrival at Pont de Galle, in Ceylon.

The visit of the Austrian frigate _Novara_ to the Islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul, so long confounded with one another, was one of the cherished objects of interest to the immortal Alexander von Humboldt.

Although St. Paul has been in very recent times visited and surveyed by ill.u.s.trious English navigators,[56] and although the doubt hitherto existent as to the precise discoverer, and the correct application of the names of the two islands, has been set at rest by the discovery of the original log of Antonio Van Diemen, kept on his voyage from the Texel to Batavia (16th December, 1632, to 21st July, 1633), by which it is made plain, beyond possibility of contradiction, that that renowned navigator pa.s.sed for certain on 17th July, 1633, between both islands, and conferred on the northern the name of New Amsterdam, and on the southern that of St.

Paul;[57] yet the two islands still continue to present points of great interest on closer examination and observation. Of the various ships which, since the discovery of those islands, have visited them for scientific purposes, hardly any have remained long enough to be in a position to acquire a thorough acquaintance with the various objects of natural history and scientific interest that present themselves. Even the visit paid by the naturalist attached to the expedition on board the English ship _Lion_ and _Hindostan_ which, on the 2nd of February, 1793, touched at St. Paul, _en route_ to China, and to whom we are indebted for the first detailed account of this island, erroneously spoken of as Amsterdam (following the example of former English navigators), did not come within the original design of that Amba.s.sadorial expedition. It was the result rather of accident that, as the _Lion_ and _Hindostan_ were pa.s.sing close in with St. Paul, two human beings were descried on the sh.o.r.e, waving in the air a piece of canvas fastened on poles, who apparently were anxious to convey to the expedition their desire to communicate with their ships. It was supposed these were shipwrecked mariners, stranded on this dangerous coast, who regarded the arrival of the _Lion_ as an unexpected means of rescue. To save these fellow-creatures from so desperate a position, the Captain of the _Lion_ declared to be a pleasing duty a.s.signed by Providence, and rejoiced to have been selected as the instrument of their deliverance. When, however, the boat of the British man-of-war, which was despatched to take off the castaways and bring them on board ship, had landed on the island, the crew speedily discovered the singular delusion which all had laboured under.

The men, whom motives of humanity had intended to rescue from this inhospitable place, turned out to be anything but involuntary residents on the island, being seal-hunters, who for five months had dwelt here, and purposed remaining ten months longer, with the intention of completing a cargo of 25,000 seal-skins, for which at that time there was a very considerable and lucrative demand in the Chinese markets,[58] and the signals which had first attracted their attention, it now appeared were for no other object than to enable them to feel themselves once more, after such an interval, in the company of their fellowmen.

[Footnote 56: Captain C. P. Blackwood, of H.M.S. _Fly_, 1842, and Captain Denham, C.B., of H.M. Surveying Ship _Herald_, 1853. M. Tinot "_capitaine du long cours_," who visited St. Paul in the summer of 1844, published likewise some interesting memoranda relating to that island, in the "_Nouvelle Annales de la Marine et des Colonies_," for November, 1853.]

[Footnote 57: Previous to the resuscitation, after considerable difficulty, of this important, indeed decisive doc.u.ment, by Mons. L. C. D. Van Dyk, among the archives of the East and West India Company of Amsterdam, of which he was Librarian, the utmost uncertainty prevailed as to the discovery, name, and geographical position of the two islands. Now, William Van Flaming, a Dutch navigator, was supposed to be the discoverer,--now, the hardy Van Diemen. Atlases, charts, and books of travels, spoke of the name St. Paul belonging, here to the northern island, there to the southern. This long-continued confusion of names had naturally left ample s.p.a.ce for the most contradictory statements as to the position, conformation, and geological conditions of both islands. One traveller, for instance, describes Amsterdam as an island with good anchorage on the North side, and an extinct crater, into which ran a fissure, forming a natural link with the ocean; while, on the other hand, he described St. Paul as a desert island, with steeply sloping sh.o.r.es, which make it matter of difficulty, if not utterly impracticable, to effect a landing; while other voyagers, again, give directly contrary accounts of both islands. Compare the following:--"An authentic account of an Emba.s.sy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, together with a relation of the voyage undertaken on the occasion by H.M.S. _Lion_, and the ship _Hindostan_, E.I.C.N., to the Yellow Sea and Gulf of Pekin, as well as of their return to Europe, taken chiefly from the papers of H.E. the Earl of Macartney, &c., by Sir George Staunton, Bart. (London, 1797), vol. I., pp. 205-27."--"Relation du Voyage a la recherche de _La Perous_ fait par l'ordre de l'a.s.semblee const.i.tuante pendant les annees 1791-92, et pendant la 1^{re} et la 2^{de} annee de la Republique Francaise. Par le citoyen La Billardiere, Correspondent de l'Academie des Sciences de Paris. Au VIII. de le Republique Francaise.

Tome I. pp. 120-123."--"Johnston, A.K., General Gazetteer of the World (London, 1855)."--"Hamburgh, James, India Directory; or, Directions for Sailing to or from the East Indies, China, Australia, and the adjacent parts of Africa and South America (London, 1855). 7th Edition, vol. I., p.

101."--"Voyage to the South Pole, and Round the World, by Captain Jas.

Cook, R.N. (London, 1777)." An interesting and tolerably circ.u.mstantial treatise on these islands is also to be found among the transactions of the Imperial-Royal Geographical Society of Vienna for the year 1857, second division, pp. 145-56, by Mr. A. C. Zhishman, Professor of Geography and History, in the I. R. Nautical Academy at Trieste.]

[Footnote 58: "It seems," says Lord Macartney, "that the Chinese possess remarkable skill in the dressing of seal-skins, by which they remove the long coa.r.s.e hair, so as to leave merely the soft tender skin, and simultaneously manage to render the hide thin and pliant. Only the prospect of some such enormous profit could at any time induce human beings to pa.s.s fifteen months at a stretch on so ungenial a spot, which, moreover, their occupation must render yet more loathsome. They killed the seals as they basked in the sun on the rocks along the sh.o.r.e, and around the broad natural rock basins. As only the skins were of any value to them, they left the flayed carcases exposed to rot on the ground, and these lie heaped together here in such ma.s.ses that it was difficult to avoid treading on them, when one reached the sh.o.r.e of the island. At every step some disgusting spectacle presented itself, while an unutterably nauseous smell of decaying matter poisoned the surrounding atmosphere. In the summer months the seals flock hither, all at the same period, in herds sometimes numbering 800 to 1000, of which usually only about one hundred are killed at a time. This is the utmost number that five men can skin in the course of a single day, it being necessary to peg them together on the spot, on account of the drying up of the skin. For want of the requisite vessels only an inconsiderable quant.i.ty of the train-oil, which these animals contain, is collected. A portion of the best of the blubber is melted, and serves these people in lieu of b.u.t.ter. The seal which frequents these islands is the Southern or Falkland seal (_Arctocephalus Falclandicus_ of Gray--_Phoca fusilla_ of Schreber). The female weighs ordinarily from seventy to one hundred and twenty pounds, and is from three to five feet long, the male usually considerably larger. In their natural state these animals are not particularly timid; sometimes, indeed, they plunge all together into the water when any one approaches them; but quite as often they remain sitting quietly on the rocks, or raise themselves erect with a menacing growl. A sharp blow on the snout with a stick seems sufficient to kill them. Most of those that approach the sh.o.r.e are females, the proportion they bear to the males being about thirty to one. This apparent disproportion between the s.e.xes, according to observation hitherto, is explained as follows:--The Southern seal at certain periods often undertakes distant wanderings from one tract to another; and certain of these tracts, such as the Cape of Good Hope and the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, are only frequented by the females when about to bring forth, and by the younger males of the school. In winter the huge snouted seal, or Sea Elephant (_Macrorhinus_, "long snout," _elephantinus_ of Gray--_Phoca leonina_ of Schreber), which sometimes attains a length of twenty-five or even thirty feet, comes in great numbers to these islands, where they herd together like sheep in the natural coves which the coast is broken into, in which the males announce the presence of a herd by a vehement growling, deepening into a loud roar."]

Owing to the important situation of St. Paul, midway between the southernmost point of Africa and the Australian continent (from each of which it is about 3150 miles distant), a complete, accurate survey of the island seemed of great importance, not merely to the scientific world, but also in the interests of navigation; as most of the ships bound for China, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as the East India liners, pa.s.s pretty close to these islands, especially during the winter season. Many captains trading in the Indian ocean see in St. Paul an advantageous haven for recruiting the strength of their scurvy-stricken crews, while the ships of others, shattered almost to the point of foundering in the storms of a tract of ocean where for thousands of miles there is no other land, can find here their only prospect of preservation.

For the voyagers on board the _Novara_, an interest of an entirely personal sort attached to their visit to the island. Among the unfortunates, who on the 24th August, 1853, suffered shipwreck on the sh.o.r.es of New Amsterdam, in the British ship _Meridian_, was a native of Brienz, in Switzerland, named Pfau. This person, together with the captain, Richard Hernamann, and a Frenchman had disappeared, leaving no trace, when, on the following morning, the surviving pa.s.sengers of the wrecked ship were rescued by a whaler that happened to be cruising in the neighbourhood. It was supposed that the three unfortunate men had endeavoured to reach the adjacent island of St. Paul in a small boat, and probably were still living there. The father of the Swiss made application, through an indirect channel, to the chief of the Expedition, earnestly requesting him on his visit to the island to inst.i.tute some enquiries with the view of finding some trace of his ill-starred son, still unwilling to renounce all hope that he might yet be found living at St. Paul.

We hove to about one mile and a half distant from the great crater-basin, in whose eastern b.u.t.tress a natural communication has been opened with the sea through a breach in its side. When the Dutch captain, William Van Flaming, cast anchor before the island in 1697, the wearing action of the waves had not yet completed this breach, there existing at that period a dam of some five feet high between the sea and the cavity of the crater.

At present small boats can, at any hour of the day, pa.s.s into the crater-basin, protected from the swell of the ocean by two natural barriers, which leave between them a pa.s.sage of about 300 feet wide. Our last admeasurement gave a length of 600 feet for the southern barrier, and 1002 feet for that in the north; while the intervening water pa.s.sage measured 306 feet in breadth, with a depth of 9.6 feet at high water, and from 2 to 3 feet at ebb tide. On the north side of the entrance to the straits stands a lofty pyramidal rock, called Nine-Pin Rock, round which circle innumerable sea-fowl, which to all appearance brood among the c.h.i.n.ks and crannies of the rock, while in the water below crowds of sharks lash the water into foam. It must be highly dangerous hereabouts to be capsized in a boat, as there would be little possibility of any one being rescued, no matter how speedily a.s.sistance might be rendered.

Scarcely were we anch.o.r.ed, ere we in the ship perceived a boat approaching from the island, which rapidly neared the frigate, with three men who had taken up their abode in even this desolate wilderness. Our imagination deluded us with the pleasing idea that these three forlorn, forsaken figures might be the long lost men wrecked in the _Meridian_, whom pitying billows might have wafted to this solitary island.

Presently there stepped on deck by the side-ropes a grizzly figure, with deeply-furrowed features and long, grey beard, clothed in a blue blouse and coa.r.s.e linen trowsers, that seemed to have weathered many a winter's storm. This primitive-looking old man proved to be a Frenchman named Viot, who had lived here for a considerable time as overseer of a fishing establishment on the island. Our first question had reference to the missing men from the _Meridian_. But how sore was our disappointment when the old sailor in the blouse told us he knew all the particulars of the catastrophe of the ship, but that he had never come across the slightest trace of the three unfortunates whom we had enquired about. Viot had visited the island regularly every year since 1841, except that in which the _Meridian_ had been lost. The fate of these three shipwrecked men must therefore remain for ever undetermined, although, considering the tempestuous weather which usually prevails in the Indian Ocean in the month of August, it is highly improbable that a boat of such small dimensions as that to which the captain and his two unhappy fellow-travellers committed themselves, could reach St. Paul, which was distant 42 miles from the spot at which the ship was wrecked.

About 11.30 A.M. the naturalists, accompanied by the officers appointed to a.s.sist in the scientific operations, proceeded in two boats to the sh.o.r.e, for the purpose of making some preliminary observations. When we reached the bar there opened to our view, covered with luxurious gra.s.s growing in tufts, the walls of a majestic crater, the exquisite regularity of the cavity of which left the exact impression of an enormous natural amphitheatre.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DISTANT VIEW OF CRATER-BASIN OF ST. PAUL.]

On either side the ground rises nearly perpendicularly to a height of about 800 feet, which probably is likewise the average height of the walls of the crater. On the north side of the basin, a kind of terrace was seen low down, with huts thatched with straw, while on the shingle of the bar was planted a not very perpendicular flagstaff, on which, in honour of the arrival of a ship of war, old Viot had run up the French ensign. As the _Novara's_ boat swept into the crater-basin, he saluted with the proverbial courtesy of his nation, which not even the rough occupation of a whale-fisher had been able to rub out of him. Viot had last come hither in the preceding March, with a mulatto and a negro on board of a fishing craft, named the _Alliance_, of 45 tons, in which he had sailed from St.

Denis, on the Island of Bourbon, anew to take charge of the little fishing station here, which is at present the property of M. Ottovan, a French gentleman domiciliated in St. Denis.

While at Cape Town we were informed, in reply to our enquiries, by the first authority in the country, that the Island of St. Paul belonged to England, and was a dependency of the Mauritius; here, to our astonishment, we on the other hand learned from the inhabitants that St. Paul at present was under the protection of the French Government, and, in fact, was an appendage of the Island of Bourbon, the governor of which long previously had ordered the French flag to be hoisted, with all the naval formalities, by a detachment of French soldiers who had been landed from a French ship of war. According to Viot--who is to all appearance a thoroughly trustworthy man, but on whom, however, we throw the responsibility of the correctness of the following information,--the island seems, in fact, to have been, some twenty years since, the property of a French merchant of St. Denis, named Camin, who somewhat later entered into partnership with a person named Adam, a Pole by birth, to whom he ultimately resigned the entire island.[59] Adam, who was described to us as a man of exceedingly fierce and determined character, did wonders for the cultivation of the island. He left a number of Mozambique negroes, whom he compelled to work through the entire year, exposed to the severest privations, and employed in hewing stone from the rocks, with which huts were erected, in preparing a landing-quay on the north side of the basin, and in sowing a number of plots of ground along the lower margin of the crater with European vegetables.

[Footnote 59: According to Captain Denham, who visited this island in 1853, the present proprietor called this fishing station, Marie Heurtevent, and said he had bought it about five years previously for 6000 dollars from a Polish merchant of St. Denis, where he himself also resided. (_Nautical Magazine_, pp. 68, 75).]

About eight or ten years since, Adam (who afterwards, in the course of a voyage from Bourbon to New Zealand, met a disgraceful death, having been thrown overboard for his cruelty by the black crew of a small vessel, whom he had driven to desperation) sold the islands to their present possessor, M. Ottovan, a ship-chandler of St. Denis, who since then has twice each year, during the fine season, despatched a small craft of some 30 to 45 tons, manned by from 15 to 18 fishermen, from St. Denis to St. Paul Island, so as to turn to advantage the unusual abundance of this fishing-ground. This vessel leaves St. Denis regularly every November on its voyage of from 24 to 30 days to St. Paul. The return voyage to St.

Denis takes place during the prevalence of the South-East Trades, and occupies a much shorter time, rarely exceeding 14 to 16 days. The fishing sloop, during its stay at the island, anchors inside the basin of the crater, so as to discharge her provisions for the fishermen, and to facilitate the freighting for the homeward voyage with the fish that have been caught, as also to guard her against sudden changes of weather, which in these lat.i.tudes, as we ourselves experienced, is, even during the best season, very stormy and dangerous. The fishermen use the excellent whaleboats (or _baleinieres_), so admirably suited to the heavy swell of the Indian Ocean, in which they go out in the morning, returning to the sh.o.r.e at nightfall. The species of fish which is found in greatest numbers, and is caught exclusively by the hook, is usually called by the fishermen, "Indian Cod:" it is by no means, however, of the _genus_ Haddock, and very slightly, if at all, resembles the codfish of northern waters, or common stock-fish, but seems to belong to the cla.s.s of finger fish (_cheilo-dactylus-fasciatus_), which is usually cla.s.sed among the crow fish (_sciaenae_). These are salted, dried in the open air, packed in casks, and dispatched in large quant.i.ties to the markets of St. Denis. It is calculated that the number thus sent off in the course of each year amounts to about 40,000. which are sold in the market of St. Denis by the hundred, for from 40 to 60 francs (1 12s. to 2 8s.--total 640 to 960).

The expenses of maintaining the settlement is very small.--Viot has 57 francs a month (2 6s.); his two companions 40 francs and 25 francs respectively (1 12s. and 1); the men engaged in the fishery receive 25 to 30 francs a month, besides provisions. The second voyage of the vessel ordinarily takes place in January or February, so as to return in April or May, with a similar cargo. It often happens that the owner of the vessel finds some more profitable employment for it, when it only returns during the second year, and their provisions, as meal, rice, biscuit, tobacco, &c., get rather short. The settlers, however, employ what leisure time remains after their work is done, in cultivating a number of plots of ground with cereals and vegetables, potatoes especially returning from time to time an excellent yield. Of these useful tubers, which grow with remarkable luxuriance in the turf-soil of the island, they raise from 60 to 80 cwt. annually. Fresh vegetables being articles in great request are more particularly made available by the inhabitants of St. Paul, by way of barter, when trafficking with the whalers, from 20 to 30 of which touch here in the year, to exchange their salt fish, rice, tobacco, cheese, brandy, &c., for the fresh provisions grown on the island. The number of vessels that pa.s.s within sight of St. Paul in the course of a year may be reckoned at from 100 to 150, of which, however, only a very few, except the whalers, visit the island.[60] In the year 1857, for example, it occurred only twice (one case being an English man-of-war), that pa.s.sing ships sent boats to the island, five months of the year having elapsed in the first instance, and two in the second.

[Footnote 60: All the Dutch Indiamen on the home voyage from Batavia, during the months of October till May, have been for many years in the habit of running south till they sighted St. Paul, so as to catch the S.

E. Trades. But it has never been the policy of the Dutch to attract attention to the eastern seas, and accordingly no information found its way to Europe respecting these interesting islands, till the period mentioned in the text.]

When the take of fish in the immediate vicinity of the island does not seem sufficiently remunerative, the fishermen occasionally launch out to greater distances. They then bring out from the basin of the crater the barque that brought them from Bourbon to St. Paul, and remain at sea for several days, or make for the adjoining island of Amsterdam, the sh.o.r.es of which are even more frequented by the fish than those of St. Paul.

As already remarked, our first movements were directed solely towards an examination of its physical features. We were accompanied on this tour of inspection by Ferdinand, an active, intelligent Mulatto, with thoroughly French manners. The French stock has this peculiarity as compared with the German, that it remains unmistakably French, even when mixed with two-thirds African blood. Ferdinand was for the first time in St. Paul, having been conveyed hither in the _Alliance_ in the previous March, to work for M. Ottovan. Family troubles had been the cause of his banishment to this dismal island. Although only 24 years of age, he was already the father of two children, whom, he informed us, he had placed at school in St. Denis; and in sheer despair at the worthless conduct of their mother, had hired himself hither as a labourer at 40 francs a month, paid by the owner of the island. He proposed returning to St. Denis in the next ship that left St. Paul, in the hope that peace might be by that time restored in his family.

At various spots in the lower rim of the crater-basin, within which Ferdinand acted as guide, we perceived heavy volumes of smoke emerging from the shallow parts of the water, which obviously implied the existence of hot springs. The two most active and largest in circ.u.mference were on the north side of the crater-basin, and were known, the one as the Bath, the other as the Drinking Fountain. Moreover, at several points on the north bar, hot water bubbles up from the soil, of such a temperature that the same person who, with a hook and line had caught a fish in the cold water basin, might, with the same motion of his hand, let them drop into the hot adjoining spring, where, in fact, it is boiled within a few minutes and fit for eating! We have ourselves made this experiment, which is also mentioned by Lord Macartney, and found the fish thus prepared exceedingly palatable.

At high water the whole of the hot springs become mingled with the brine of the ocean, and thus indicate a temperature which is barely perceptibly higher than that of the latter. Adjoining the landing-place, several late visitors to the island have endeavoured to perpetuate the record of their fleeting presence on some compact granite blocks of rock, which are scattered in the path to the hot springs. Thus, on one of those stones, fast becoming obliterated by the weather, may be read:--"Savouret, 1841"-- "J. D. Rogers, 1855, Mars."--On a second huge block:--"Hte. Rogers, 1852 to 1857;" and lastly, these names, with difficulty decipherable, "Pallefournier-Emile, Mazarni-Denoyarez, Gren.o.ble, Canton de Sa.s.senage, Departement de l'Isere, 1844." In general we found none of the inscriptions on the island that can be recognized.

On reaching the plateau above, which is reached by a narrow, steep, and in many places rather fatiguing path, from the settlers' huts on the north side of the basin of the crater, we came to a breeding-place of the yellow-tufted "Crested or Hopping-Penguin"[61] (_apterodytes chrysocome_) in which we found at the lowest estimate from 500 to 600 of these singular creatures, which are adorned with grey-yellow tufts of feathers arranged in a semicircle above the eyes, and which, as was well remarked by the naturalist attached to the _Lion_, with the peculiar plumage and the almost scaly covering of their fin-like wings, suggest a remote resemblance to the form of a fish. Living part of the year in the water, and pa.s.sing most of the remainder on land, Nature has, in a manner, adapted them for these widely differing modes of life. The dirty greyish-brown attire of the young contrasts so strongly with the gay plumage of the old penguin, that at the first glance they hardly seem to belong to the same species. The females lay only one or two eggs, usually in October, so that at the time of our visit, the young were only about a month-and-a-half or so old. These penguins, so graceful and nimble in the water, as if it were their proper element, are very awkward on land, so as to be easily caught, or knocked down with a stick. Only in so doing it is necessary to be on one's guard against a blow from their long sharp bills, with which they can inflict on their pursuer a by no means trifling wound.

In the course of centuries, during which they have paid undisturbed visits to this island, they have trodden a well-marked path from their breeding-place to the edge of the sea; and it is a proof of the wonderful instinct of this creature, that this place is almost the only point on the entire island, at which it would be possible for it to reach the sea.

A flock of these hopping penguins presents an odd and peculiar appearance, as, after leisurely bathing in the sea, and providing a sufficient supply of food for their young, their elegant heads emerge from the water, when carefully calculating the effect of the breakers, they ride their crest and allow themselves to be deposited on the beach; or, after hopping from stone to stone, the plumes on their heads nodding to and fro, suddenly plunge headforemost into the sea, like so many somersault-throwers! Not less diverting are the movements of these animals when, returned from their laborious wanderings, which they undertake two or three times a day in search of food for their young, they bend their tottering steps back to the roosting-place, waddling in their walk like ducks. One always leads the way as guide and forager-in-chief, and the rest, usually from ten to fifteen in number, follow him in a column; on reaching the roosting-place, a piece of level winding ground, they give a shrill cry, and comport themselves anything but peaceably towards their neighbours, especially if these have possessed themselves of their accustomed seats. Continual squabbling and disputing go on, and their croaking and screaming are prolonged far into the silence of night. They show much tenderness for their young, shelter them with great care, and defend them with extraordinary courage and pertinacity against the southern hawk gull[62]

(_stercorarius antarcticus_), which frequently swoops upon the breeding-ground, and even ventures within reach of man, from whom it defends itself by violently striking and biting with its beak. Always at war under ordinary circ.u.mstances, they are nevertheless the most faithful of allies in moments of common danger or necessity. The flesh of the old penguin has so rank a smell that it is only used by those frequenting the island in case of the most extraordinary necessity; that of the young, on the other hand, has a far more agreeable flavour.

[Footnote 61: Called also the "_Jumping Jack_" by the English sailors, from its custom of jumping quite out of the water, like a porpoise, on its encountering the slightest obstacle.]

[Footnote 62: Called by the English sailors "Port Egmont Hens" from their frequenting Port Egmont in the Falkland Isles. They seem to be identical in species with the "skua," or "bonxie" of the Shetlands.]