e had gone was three or four miles further to the south. The water
was very clear, and as we passed through the kelp we looked down in some
places where it grew less thickly, and could see its vast stems and
branches, with their huge leaves, springing up from the depth of many
fathoms, like a forest of submarine oaks or Spanish chestnuts. We were
amused with the flight of some of the ducks we put up. Mr Burkett
called them loggerheads, racers, or steamers. Their wings will not lift
them from the water, but whirling them round and round, they went
scuttling and waddling away over the surface at a rapid rate, generally
two and two--the loving husband and his wife--leaving a deep furrow in
the water behind them. We burst into fits of laughter at the ridiculous
manner in which they moved. They are fat and fishy, and not at all fit
for food. I never expected to have seen more birds together than we had
passed at the rookery under the cliffs in the morning; but we sailed by
an island, of which birds of all descriptions had taken entire
possession. There were various species of ducks, and geese, and snipe,
and teal, and shags, and grebes, and penguins, and albatrosses, and
sea-rooks, and oyster-catchers, and gulls with pink breasts, and many
others, of whose names I have no note. As we believed that we had
plenty of time, we landed near some cliffs to have a nearer look at
them. So tame were they that we could knock down as many as we liked
with our sticks; but it was murderous work, and as we did not want them
to eat--indeed many were not fit for eating--we soon desisted from it.

Near where we landed the cliffs ran out into the sea, forming natural
docks, and in one of these cliffs we discovered a large cavern, which
seemed to run a great way under the ground. By climbing along the
ledges of the rocks, somewhat slippery with sea-weed, at no little risk
of a ducking, we got to the mouth of the cavern. The sides were
composed of ledges rising one above another, and every available spot,
as far as the eye could penetrate, was occupied by shags and divers, and
other sea-fowls. There were thousands--there might have been millions
of them, if the cavern ran back as far as we supposed it did. They in
no way seemed alarmed at our intrusion, but allowed us to kick them
over, without attempting to escape. However, at last, old Surley found
his ways after us, and his appearance created the wildest hurly-burly
and confusio