The Brachiopoda are represented by a very inferior member, the Terebratulina, only two lines long, which, however, is a giant compared with one of the two only kinds of mussel, Kellia and Lima, which are occasionally met with here, and are only half-a-line in length.
Among the Vertebratæ, the fishery of which is the principal object of the visits annually paid to the island, one, the Cheilodactylus, a spinous-finned fish, which is extraordinarily abundant all round the island, supports an important fishery, while Thyrsites Atun were frequently caught with rod and line from the frigate.
Of Amphibiæ, there is not a vestige to be found on the island; the birds belong for the most part to the powerful-winged web-footed birds that frequent the open ocean, as, for example, the Diomedea exulans (great albatross or man-of-war bird), D. chlororhynchus (yellow-billed albatross), D. fuliginosa (a new one not determined), Lestris catarractes, Storna sp: Prion Vittatus, of which the four last-named, at the time of our visit, had both eggs and young. Of birds with fin-shaped wings, there was the golden-crested penguin (Apterodytes chrysocoma S.), living in two distinct colonies among the precipitous overhanging cliffs, with innumerable young, already of a pretty good size.[71] We also remarked several other winged denizens of the deep, which had alighted on our ship during the last few days immediately preceding our arrival at St. Paul. According to the fishery-people, the other birds of the island quit it altogether so soon as their young have grown sufficiently, and only return when the next breeding season comes round.
[71] One of the zoologists, Mr. Zelebor, endeavoured to kill two penguins that had been caught alive in the island, the one with arsenic, the other with chloroform. Of the latter, a quantity was administered enough to have killed a man, but which scarcely affected the penguin, who, in a quarter of an hour after, seemed quite restored to himself. The second, which had swallowed two tea-spoonsful of arsenic, died eight hours later.
In contradistinction to the sea-birds, M. Frauenfeld remarked but one single land-bird, a swallow, whose movements seemed to indicate that he was watching a breeding female. A stray bird on this lonely spot of earth, nearly 3000 miles away from the main land! Hundreds of questions suggested themselves on thus unexpectedly coming upon so well-known a wanderer. What could have condemned him to this self-imposed exile? Was he a straggler? Was it the first time he had selected this island for a home? Had it been his own cradle? And would he at some future period find companions to visit with him, and ultimately share these solitary desolate abodes?
There were no seals visible,—they have retreated before the attacks and stratagems of their insatiate pursuer the seal-hunter, and for a long period have ceased to frequent the island. Indeed, St. Paul furnishes not a single specimen of mammal peculiar to itself; for all the members of this great natural division at present on it,—such as goats, swine, cats, &c.,—having become wild, must necessarily be classed, however unusual, with rats, mice, and the like. In other respects, all these have not varied in the slightest from the type of the domesticated animal (although they have probably lived wild for a hundred years past), except that they are very shy and avoid the presence of man.
While upon these various points, the stay of the Imperial Expedition at St. Paul gave many splendid results by means of observations and scientific collections, it was also productive of a number of important practical benefits for seafaring people. The geodesical results, for instance, obtained by the Expedition, demonstrate that there is formed by the basin of the crater at St. Paul's, despite the small extent of its coast-line, a secure natural haven which would afford substantial facilities for ships, to which, on their voyage to China, Australia, or anywhere in the East Indies, any accident has happened, necessitating complete and speedy repair, or which might require fresh provisions for their crews, stricken with scurvy after a long voyage. For, although the depth of the basin of the crater in the centre is very considerable, and although the squalls of wind from the N.W. are often very violent, the ship can always make fast to the land, and so ensure the requisite security. How far the assistance so cheerfully rendered by science may have been called for, or how far the route at present traversed by sailing vessels makes that assistance desirable, must be left to the judgment of those nations, such as the English, French, and Dutch, which, as having possessions washed by the Indian Ocean, have a direct interest in the future condition of such a harbour of refuge, situate equidistant from Asia, Africa, and Australia.
The morning after our departure from St. Paul, that is to say, on 7th Dec., we found ourselves not more than ten miles distant from Amsterdam. The first view of the island greatly resembles that of St. Paul, and the hypothesis gained constantly in probability that the geological formation of Amsterdam is nearly identical with that of St. Paul.
A whaler was cruising in the neighbourhood of the island, while one of his slim whaleboats was pursuing a school of sperm whales, which sported about in great numbers.
Towards 7 a. m., a boat approached from the whaler Esmeralda, Captain Pierce, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, to ask for surgical assistance for a sailor who, while engaged a few days previously in hauling a captured fish alongside, had had his left hand so severely injured by one of the lines, that amputation had seemed the sole remedy. The Captain had, in genuine Yankee fashion, assumed the duties of surgeon, and performed the operation himself. Now that it was over, and when neither praise nor censure could benefit the patient, he was anxious to know whether he had done right or wrong. While one of the ship's surgeons was getting ready, as requested by the captain, to proceed to the bedside of his patient, the whaler informed us he had already been absent from his family in the States five months, and would proceed hence to the Sandwich Islands and the Northern grounds, and finally return home round Cape Horn. If the take of fish proved good, he hoped to complete the voyage within two years. Whale-fishing, in truth, is not only a very dangerous and laborious, but also a most precarious pursuit. Occasionally a ship gets loaded within a brief space with oil and whalebone, by which, of course, the owner or charterer makes a splendid profit, and the entire crew obtain a handsome share. But frequently does it happen that, after a voyage of fifteen months and more, there is not a single fish taken, in which case the hardy sailors, who are entirely dependent for their pay upon a share of the spoil, have had all their labour and undergone all their privations in vain, while the freighter is poorer by a good round sum. The bare chance, however, of a rich haul is sufficient to raise to 8000, the number (probably on the increase) of the ships of varying tonnage and nationality, which at present encounter the anxieties, dangers, and hardships attaching to the whale-fishery. It is calculated that, were it possible to anchor them within signalling distance of each other, they would form a complete girdle round the earth at the Equator. In other respects, the incessant activity of the whaler is not without its advantages for science, since the observations and communications of many of the captains connected with the whaling business have essentially contributed to extend our acquaintance with atmospheric phenomena, especially in high latitudes, on both sides of the Equator.