nd, but of the several small islands in the
vicinity. Our labours, however, were not crowned with any important
success. We saw a great many fur seal, but they were exceedingly shy,
and with the greatest exertions, we could only procure three hundred
and fifty skins in all. Sea elephants were abundant, especially on the
western coast of the mainland, but of these we killed only twenty, and
this with great difficulty. On the smaller islands we discovered a
good many of the hair seal, but did not molest them. We returned to the
schooner: on the eleventh, where we found Captain Guy and his nephew,
who gave a very bad account of the interior, representing it as one
of the most dreary and utterly barren countries in the world. They had
remained two nights on the island, owing to some misunderstanding, on
the part of the second mate, in regard to the sending a jollyboat from
the schooner to take them off.

CHAPTER 15

ON the twelfth we made sail from Christmas Harbour retracing our way to
the westward, and leaving Marion's Island, one of Crozet's group, on the
larboard. We afterward passed Prince Edward's Island, leaving it also on
our left, then, steering more to the northward, made, in fifteen days,
the islands of Tristan d'Acunha, in latitude 37 degrees 8' S, longitude
12 degrees 8' W.

This group, now so well known, and which consists of three circular
islands, was first discovered by the Portuguese, and was visited
afterward by the Dutch in 1643, and by the French in 1767. The three
islands together form a triangle, and are distant from each other about
ten miles, there being fine open passages between. The land in all of
them is very high, especially in Tristan d'Acunha, properly so called.
This is the largest of the group, being fifteen miles in circumference,
and so elevated that it can be seen in clear weather at the distance of
eighty or ninety miles. A part of the land toward the north rises more
than a thousand feet perpendicularly from the sea. A tableland at this
height extends back nearly to the centre of the island, and from this
tableland arises a lofty cone like that of Teneriffe. The lower half of
this cone is clothed with trees of good size, but the upper region is
barren rock, usually hidden among the clouds, and covered with snow
during the greater part of the year. There are no shoals or other
dangers about the island, the shores being remarkably bold and the water
deep. On the northwestern coa