immediate
future.

The most remarkable feature of the month's weather was the wind, as
gales blew on eleven days, and on seven other days the velocity reached
twenty-five miles per hour. Precipitation occurred on twenty-seven
days, and the average percentage of cloud was eighty-four. The mean
temperature was 38.1 degrees with extremes of 45.3 degrees and 26
degrees F. A prolonged display of auroral light occurred on the night
of the 17th, though no colours other than the light lemon-yellow of the
arch and streamers could be seen.

Bull elephants were now arriving in great numbers, and these monsters
could be seen lying everywhere on the isthmus, both up in the tussock,
on the beaches, and among the heaps of kelp. Now and again one would
lazily lift a flipper to scratch itself or heave its great bulk into a
more comfortable position.

The island is the habitat of two kinds of night-birds, one kind--a
species of petrel (Lesson's)--being much larger than the other, both
living in holes in the ground. They fly about in the darkness, their
cries resembling those made by a beaten puppy. The smaller bird
(apparently indigenous and a new species) was occasionally seen flying
over the water during the day, but the larger ones come out almost
exclusively at night. A light attracts them and Hamilton, with the aid
of a lantern and a butterfly-net, tried to catch some. Others swooped
about, well out of range, shrieking the while in an uncanny way. Numbers
of them were secured afterwards by being dug out of their holes, Mac
being just as keen to locate them as Hamilton was to secure them. They
cannot see well during the day, and seem to have almost lost the use of
their feet. They lay two small, white, thin-shelled eggs at the end of
their burrow; and in certain parts of the island, where the burrows are
numerous, the sound made by hundreds of them at once, during the nesting
season, somewhat resembles that made by a high-power Marconi wireless
set at close range.

Before Blake left Lusitania Bay, I promised to see that the hut on Sandy
Bay was re-stocked with provisions by the middle of the month, so, on
the 8th, Hamilton, Sandell and I carried a supply of stores down there,
leaving a note which informed him that we expected the 'Rachel Cohen' to
arrive any day, and asking him to return to the Shack. On the way down
we came upon a vast quantity of wreckage piled up on the beach, midway
between "The Nuggets" and Sandy Bay. This