Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/155

East Coast, & V.D.'s Land.]

islands assumes a depressed, creeping form, strongly indicative of the strength and generality of the winds from those quarters. Many of the sandy parts are covered with the hassocks of wiry grass, which constitute the favourite retreat of the sooty petrel; and at the back of the shores, there is frequently some extent of ground where the creeping, salt plants grow, and to which the pinguins principally resort. To this general account of the scanty vegetable productions of Furneaux's Islands, may be added several low shrubs, and a grass which grows on the moist grounds near the borders of the pools and fresh swamps, and which, though coarse, might serve as food for cattle.

Of the animal productions of the islands, the list is somewhat more extensive. Those for which they are indebted to the sea, are seals of two kinds, sooty petrels, and pinguins. The hair seal appears to frequent the sheltered beaches, points; and rocks; whilst the rocks and rocky points exposed to the buffettings of the waves are preferred by the handsomer and superior species, which never condescends to the effeminacy of a beach. A point or island will not be greatly resorted to by these animals, unless it slope gradually to the water, and the shore be, as we term it, steep to. This is the case with the islet lying off Cape Barren, and with Cone Point; with parts of the Passage Isles, and the south end of Clarke's Island; and at these places only, did I see fur seals in any number.

The sooty petrel, better known at sea under the name of sheerwater, frequents the tufted, grassy parts of all the islands in astonishing numbers. It is known that these birds make burrows in the ground, like rabbits; that they lay one or two enormous eggs in these holes, and bring up their young there. In the evening, they come in from sea, having their stomachs filled with a gelatinous substance gathered from the waves; and this they eject into the throats of their offspring, or retain for their own nourishment, according to circumstances. A little after sunset, the air at Preservation Island used to be darkened with their numbers; and it was generally an