Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

Island and Beaver Island, and even the main island of West Falkland was quite
clear.
The ground we walked over was riddled with holes made by the diving
petrels, and the remains of the skuas’ feasts were liberally strewn about; the
skuas dive-bombed us a number of times. We walked through a colony of
rockhopper penguins and smaller colonies of mollymauk and shag. The
mollymauk young are odd creatures; they rock backwards and forwards on
their feet and snap their bills together with loud claps. In passing through the
rookery, we stumbled through a large stand of tussac, disturbing a ‘jasper’
which was lying some hundreds of feet above sea level; he made off in a great
rage.
Arrived at the settlement I met Mrs. Davis (known as ‘the Wren’ by virtue
of her wartime service) and the four children. We drank gin and talked for
hours and then had a very fine dinner - thick onion soup, mutton, cabbage,
new potatoes, mushroom pickle, followed by gooseberries and cream - all
home-grown. We then went down to the garden, some distance away and
came back with two large sacks full of rhubarb, cabbage, turnip and parsley.
Tea followed and several stronger drinks -"for the road" - some strawberry jam,
and a showing of the family photograph album completed the evening. Joe,
one of the seamen, came for us in the boat and we left at 10 o’clock, after a very
pleasant time. We had packed an awful lot into the day, one that I still
remember vividly.
Next day was 22 February. We sailed from New Island in the early
morning, and anchored off First Passage Island at 8 o’clock. It was a lovely
morning - not a breath of wind and the sea mirror-calm, with West Point and
the main island miraged and apparently floating in the sky. We had to take on
board 165 lambs and 87 sheep, using the two pram dinghies. I sat in the bow
and watched the marine-life in the kelp; in the clear water there were crabs,
spider crabs, starfish, jellyfish, hydroids, crustaceans, including lobster krill,
and some fish. It was as well populated - if not more so - than a tropical jungle.
The cutter Weddell came over from the West - Roy Cove - and moored
alongside us. Then Johnny and I went ashore to shoot some geese for the pot.
We saw only two pairs and they were very wild. We tried several shots from
over 100 yards, but without success and returned through the tussac to find the
loading almost complete. The island is dry and grassy in the centre and long
sea coves indent the West coast; some of these have large caves but we saw no
seal. Johnny rowed out to the ship to collect his camera for some photos. There
was a school of Commerson's dolphins feeding on the fringes of the kelp;
Tilbury cut some tussock grass. Just after noon we weighed anchor and set a
course for Weddell Island, overtaking the Weddell, which had set out before us.
It was still very calm, with mirages to North and West and we made very good
time.
We unloaded the lambs and took on board ‘Remo’, Tilbury's new horse -
also hay for the horse and milk for us. I went ashore and got a couple of fox
skins from Mr McGill. The Protector was touching bottom at the stern, where
there was a ledge of rock, but we got her off with the engines. Remo was put
on the portside deck and we left at 4.15 pm for Albemarle via Bird Island,
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