Page:Castaway on the Auckland Isles (IA castawayonauckla01musg).pdf/50

34 almost without motion. Then suddenly rises an imperious cloud, which immediately covers the whole sky, and down falls a pelting shower of rain, sleet, or hail, generally accompanied with a thick fog. Thus it continues night and day. The barometer has kept very low; yesterday it was down to 28⋅30, but it has been rising rapidly since, and is now (11 ) at 29⋅18, which is the only apparent indication of a change. There is snow on the tops of the mountains. We have not yet had frost where we are, although yesterday at noon the thermometer was as low as 34°. This morning, about six o'clock, we felt the shock of an earthquake; it was not violent, but the tremor continued about a minute. Eight —The weather continues as before, only that the showers are now alternately sleet and snow. Barometer 29⋅45; thermometer 33°.

Sunday, May 22, 1864.—The weather continued as before described until yesterday morning, since which time it has been dull, cloudy, and foggy; but wild, with N.W. airs. On Friday morning the ground was all covered with snow; but now it has disappeared even from the tops of the mountains, and the birds are again singing blithely. The blow-flies are busy again, and I begin to think that the winter will not be severe enough to banish them entirely. The small flies, or what I have called mosquitoes, will evidently not leave, for on Friday, with the thermometer at freezing (32°), they were biting. We have seen one of the dogs again, and we have also seen one of those animals which I have before mentioned as burrowing in the earth. The one that we saw was up a tree, and the dog was barking at him; but on seeing us they both made off. The animal had short legs and short ears, a long tail, and grey-coloured fur like a cat, which he somewhat resembles, only that his body is long, and not so big round as that of a cat. This animal evidently lives upon birds and eggs, from the fact that we frequently find feathers and egg shells about their holes. Speaking of eggs, we have not as yet found any; but probably we arrived here too late in the season