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

The evening passed quickly with tea and cakes, more accordion music and
then we rowed off again, under a moon partly obscured by cloud.
Next day we were up at 5 o’clock and soon under way - down the passage
between George and Speedwell Islands and then straight to Jack's Island. We
passed main Arch Island, the natural arch came into view and then we were at
Jack's Island, where we anchored and began to unload sheep. I worked in the
hold with Verney, where it was very hot and the smell overpowering. Then
back to Port Albemarle where we tied up alongside the Golden Chance, for a
while, before towing her alongside, to the sealing station. The next few days at
the station were uneventful and I arranged to spend a few days on Arch Island
with Johnny Browning, leaving after lunch on 3 March.
It was a very fine day when Johnny and I boarded one of the pram
dinghies, with all our gear, feeling a little like Robinson Crusoe and Man
Friday – I’m not sure who was who. We landed on a lovely sandy beach below
the huts and spent some time hauling the pram above high tide mark; then
carried our gear up to the main hut, tidied it up, collected wood and dug a well
for drinking water. We lit the stove and had some tea. Having seen no seals we
went out looking for them and also to reconnoiter part of the island. This took
us to the top of the island behind the huts, a ridge that forms its backbone; we
had to force our way through dense tussock, up to ten feet high and then
suddenly emerged onto open moorland, with diddle-dee, strawberries and
very luscious grass. We found a deep chasm, which Roddy Napier had
described to me - a rent in the island falling to sea level - and we could hear the
roar of the swell at the bottom. It would have been possible to climb down but
we didn't. Then we came to another similar hole, which had developed a stage
further as the roof of the tunnel connecting it with the sea had collapsed,
turning it into a narrow inlet running inland for about 120 yards. We enjoyed
excellent views of the other islands and watched a herd of seals, looking just
like a moving patch of kelp, fishing and playing in the surf. The heavy swell
from the Southeast was breaking on the cliffs, sending clouds of spray on the
wind and boiling surf for fifty yards from the rocks. We found six dead
bullocks on the highest part of the island, lying as they had been shot, and
could not understand who had done it and for what reason.
Coming on to the South coast, now forcing our way through tussock, we
came to the first of the sea lion rookery grounds, disturbing a clapmatch which
bounded out of the tussock, roared defiantly, and went down the hill. Another
jasper rushed, with a little persuasion, into the sea. We walked on around the
coast, meeting families of grey duck, kelp geese, upland geese, some penguins,
but very few seal. We picked up a number of skulls and teeth and found two
dead sea lions, which I investigated the next day. At the hut I fetched the rifle
and collecting materials and we went back a few hundred yards to kill a jasper
that had just hauled out, for specimens, he was not very large. Back at the hut I
cleaned the skull while Johnny cooked supper.
There was frost during the night but we slept well despite the bare boards
and rose at 6 o’clock, to a glorious sunny morning, the kelp shining coppery
against the deep blue of the sea and each tussock plant with a fringing halo of
light. Sea lions were playing in the water offshore and, looking down, I could
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