We purposely say "at any time about that period," because the inhabitants of the island do not avail themselves of that assistance so universal now-a-days of a printed calendar, but trust to memory for keeping a reckoning of the flight of time. That mistakes should frequently occur with such a method of computing time is rendered the more probable that not one of the three denizens of the island can write. For instance, we once remarked to our worthy Viot that by his own reckoning he had marked one day more than he had actually lived. "We always get into a mess with these confounded months of thirty-one days!" was the good-humoured reply of the ancient wanderer from Nantes.
Although the volcanic soil of St. Paul is everywhere especially adapted for scientific study, it nevertheless presents few objects with which to enrich collections of natural history. An island, on which not a single tree or bush is to be found, and on whose tufa soil, though well adapted for fruit, only a few grasses, ferns, and mosses thrive, must, so far as regards the value of his researches, prove as little interesting to the botanist as the zoologist, who, as we shall see more circumstantially further on, came across but few representatives here of the animated kingdom.
At several places, the practical gardener who accompanied the frigate was ordered to plant a number of European vegetables and anti-scorbutic plants, such as cabbage, horse-radish, turnips, of various assorted species, celery, garden-cress, and spoonwort,[64] it is to be hoped with favourable results. At all events, we had the satisfaction during our stay, of seeing the tender shoots of some of the vegetables already sprouting through the surface of the earth. At that time there were not above a dozen or so cultivated spots on the Island; if, however, these are carefully cultivated, they can always furnish enough excellent nourishing provision for from 80 to 100 men. A quantity of potatoes, from 6 to 8 sacks, planted in June, yield, in January or February, a crop of from 60 to 80 casks of 100 lbs. each, or between 3 and 4 tons.
[64] The vegetables planted were as follows:—Brassica rapa (rape); Brassica oleracea capitata (sea kail); Brassica rapa alba (white turnip); Brassica rapa flava (yellow turnip); Raphanus sativus (radish); Lepidium sativum (dittandu); Cochleæia officinalis (scurvy grass).
Wheat, maize, and barley, also thrive at St. Paul, and their cultivation has only been discontinued, in consequence of their conversion into bread requiring a much larger amount of fuel than is at the command of the residents. On the other hand, all attempts to cultivate beans and peas have utterly failed hitherto. All kinds of nutritive plants give but one crop in the year. So also several kinds of trees, which promised to grow well, considering the resemblance between the climate here and that to which they were indigenous—such as Pinus maritima, various kinds of Protea, &c., and the successful rearing of which would ultimately prove an extraordinary benefit to all who frequent the island, in consequence of the great scarcity of firewood—were planted as seedlings by the gardener attached to the Expedition, in the vicinity of the two huts used for the observations. Assuredly it will not be one of the least important benefits of the Novara Expedition, which it will have conferred on St. Paul, if the growth of the seedlings, planted in its soil with such a noble purpose in view, should result in the gradual and at all events partial clothing of the island in the forest.
As to the Fauna of St. Paul, there appears to be one kind of sea-swallow (storna) not hitherto described, the bill and feet of which are of a coral-red colour, and delicate silver-grey plumage, undoubtedly the most beautiful of the feathered inhabitants, as the penguin is the most extraordinary and peculiar creature on the island. Besides these there is also a pretty grey diver (Prion Vittatus), which builds its nest among the rocks; also a brown gull (Stercorarius antarcticus), as also three kinds of albatrosses (Diomedea exulans, D. fuliginosa, D. chlororhinchos).
The Crater-basin was somewhat less unproductive than the dry land. The depth is from 100 to 175 feet. Close to the edge, the sounding line gave a depth of 10 fathoms (60 feet). Experiments with the dredging-net, although frequently made, gave by no means satisfactory results. On the other hand, the rod and line brought up many an interesting addition to our collection, and frequent strolls at ebb-tide along the barely uncovered masses of rock that skirted the basin of the crater were rewarded with numerous discoveries of specimens of conchology. In the centre of the basin we came upon slimy ground at a depth of 204 feet; near the hot springs (about 100 feet distant), 19 fathoms (114 feet); and at a third point, on the south side, 23 fathoms (138 feet). Viot said, that after repeated soundings at different points, he had found the depth of the basin varied from 10 to 35 fathoms (60 to 210 feet). The seals (Arctocephalus Falclandicus) of which, according to Macartney, at the end of last century, thousands daily came to the coast of the island to bask in the sun, have almost entirely disappeared, so that these animals are very rarely seen or captured by the inhabitants. Even of the skeletons of these marine mammals, which, when the naturalists of the Lion were roaming through the island, used to lie about in such numbers that one could almost walk upon bones all round the crater, not a vestige is left, and one can hardly realize that formerly hundreds of thousands of these animals were slaughtered at this island.
Almost all the quadrupeds of the island are domestic animals that have been brought hither from Europe and the French colonies—such as swine, goats, cats, rabbits—which at present live here in a wild state. The goats, which were first introduced in 1844, are most numerous on the N.W. of the island; the swine, on the contrary, are not so frequently met with. During our residence, a boar and a wild cat were killed; a few days after, the five young of the cat were found, having been compelled to emerge from their lair in search of food. A female hare, which we had brought from Cape Town, was also set free on the island, and it was fortunate for the propagation of these useful animals that there was already a male hare on the island. A pair of geese was also presented to the colonists, which perhaps have continued to breed there.
As we thought the island was uninhabited, it was originally our intention to leave several kinds of domestic animals of different sexes with a view to propagation; and with that object, when at Cape Town had made various purchases of useful animals; but, under the circumstances, we relinquished this intention, as there seemed but little chance of their being left undisturbed sufficiently long to secure the desired object. Occasionally cows would be landed from the whalers for the sake of the fresh fodder, and taken away again after the lapse of a month or two.
The projected scientific operations of the Expedition might easily have been carried out within eight days, had we not been so obstinately persecuted with unfavourable weather. Violent north winds, which rendered it impossible to make any use of the surveying-board in the open air, alternated in an extraordinary manner with rainbows. Our astronomical observations were as yet nothing to speak of. Observations with the barometer, thermometer, current-measurer, and tide-guage, could alone be prosecuted, the last of which especially gave the following interesting result, that the hour of high water, both at full moon and new moon, is not 11 a. m., as given by Horsburgh (7th edition, Vol. I. p. 102), but at 1.10 p. m.[65]