he site of a
penguin rookery, besides shooting a few terns.

The tern is a very pretty bird with light grey plumage, a black head and
red beak and feet. We found no nests on the island, though the fact that
the birds remain throughout the year implies that they breed there. They
fly very fast while not appearing to do so, but their movements are by
no means graceful. They flit about over the water close to the shore,
every now and then dipping down picking up morsels and keeping up a
constant, shrill squeaking.

The sea was so high on the 7th that it reached the weight of the
tide-gauge and, lifting it up, unshipped the recording gear, as the
steel wire flew off the wheel before the latter could take up the slack.
I deemed it advisable to use stout cord instead of wire in the future
and made a protective slot for the weight. I had blocked up the seaward
side of the pipe with rocks, but found that these caused a deposit of
silt so I had to get into the water at low tide and shift them all out
again to clean away the accumulation of sand.

Very heavy snow fell during the afternoon, the flakes being the size of
half a crown. A fresh north-north-west wind dropped to a calm at 4 P.M.
and almost immediately it began to snow, the island being quite white by
5.30 P.M.

Bright sunny intervals alternated with light snow-squalls on the 10th,
and the temperature was below freezing-point all day. It was pleasant
to be out of doors, and I walked along to the west coast to see if there
were any signs of activity amongst the sea elephants.

An unmistakable sign of the near approach of the breeding season was the
presence of an enormous old bull, almost too fat to move, lying on the
beach. Very few small ones were seen, as, on the arrival of the adult
males and females for the breeding season, the young ones leave for
a while, presumably in order to get fat for the moulting period, or
because they are afraid of the bulls, who are particularly savage at
this time. The full-grown bulls attain to a length of twenty feet, and
have a fleshy proboscis about eight or ten inches in length hanging over
the mouth, suggesting the trunk of an elephant. It is from this fact
that they derive the name of sea elephant.

There is a considerable disparity in size between the adult male and
female, the latter very rarely exceeding eleven feet, though we have
seen a few twelve and thirteen feet long. The females have no snout
development and some of