ollecting a few bird and animal
specimens. They referred to the island as being "half-cooled down," in
a short but interesting account of their visit, and remarked upon the
large number of sea-elephants lying on the shores.

In 1840 the ship 'Peacock', one of the exploring vessels of the American
Expedition under Wilkes, landed several men after much difficulty on the
south-west of the island, but they remained only a few hours, returning
to their ship after securing some specimens of birds. Expressing
astonishment at the "myriad of birds", they remarked, "Macquarie Islands
offer no inducement for a visit, and as far as our examination showed,
have no suitable place for landing with a boat."

The next call of an Antarctic expedition was made by Captain Scott in
the 'Discovery' in November 1901. He, with several naturalists, landed
on the eastern side to collect specimens, but remained only a few hours.
He refers to the penguins, kelp-weed and tussock grass; certainly three
characteristic features.

Captain Davis, during his search for charted sub-antarctic islands, when
connected with Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition, called there in
the 'Nimrod' in 1909. He landed a party of men who secured several
sea-elephants and some penguins.

It will thus be seen that very little had been done which was
scientifically important or generally interesting. Sealers came and went
as a matter of business, and probably the arduous nature of their work
and the rugged topography of the island combined to prevent the more
curious from exploring far afield.

Captain Scott was desirous of establishing a base on Macquarie Island
in 1910, but circumstances compelled him to abandon the idea. And so it
came that we five men of Dr. Mawson's Expedition were landed on December
22, 1911, with a programme of work outlined by our leader. H. Hamilton
was biologist, L. R. Blake surveyor and geologist, C. A. Sandell and A.
J. Sawyer were wireless operators, the former being also a mechanic, and
I was appointed meteorologist and leader of the party.

We stood on the beach in the dusk, watching the boat's party struggle
back to the 'Aurora', which lay at anchor one and a half miles from
the north-west shore. Having received a soaking landing in the surf and
being tired out with the exertions of the day, we started back to our
temporary shelter. We had not gone very far when a mysterious sound,
followed by a shaking of the earth, made us glance at e