Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/126

54 manner, although great numbers are every year killed by the sealers, not only for present subsistence, but salted down for supplies on their voyages to and from the Cape. Some goats had been landed from an American ship some years ago on Possession Island, and were also thriving on the long coarse grass with which it abounds, but still maintained their domestic state, under the protection of the sealers. The party consisted in all of eleven men, one of whom had been on the island for three years: they seemed to have no wish to return to the Cape of Good Hope and were quite contented, having plenty of food. The tongue, flippers, and part of the carcase of the Sea Elephant are eaten by them, and they get a great abundance of a species of rock-fish (probably a Cottus or Notothenia), about the size of a small haddock, with a very large head, which they preserve by drying upon the rocks. The eggs of sea-birds in the breeding season may be collected by boat loads, and are said to be excellent food, particularly that of the albatross, which averages above a pound in weight, and the young birds, when first taken from the nest, are described by them as being quite delicious: it is possible, however, they may have acquired the Esquimaux taste as well as their habits. They described the soil as being good, but they have never planted potatoes or other vegetable, although they have no doubt of their thriving here as the temperature is never very low. Wild ducks are so numerous in a lake on the top of the Ked Crag that dogs, trained for the purpose, get them any number whenever they are wanted.