“The tree ferns were numerous, but stunted.  The gannets were sleeping on the tops of the bushes, and some of the crabs had climbed up the bushes and were sunning themselves on the top.  These crabs were round us in thousands—­I counted seven watching me out of one crack between two rocks.

“We sat down under the lee of the summit, and thought it would not be bad to be thrown away on a desert island, little thinking how near we were to being stranded, for a time at any rate.

“The crabs gathered round us in a circle, with their eyes turning towards us—­as if they were waiting for us to die to come and eat us.  One big fellow left his place in the circle and waddled up to my feet and examined my boots.  First with one claw and then with the other he took a taste of my boot.  He went away obviously disgusted:  one could almost see him shake his head.

“We collected, as well as our birds and eggs, some spiders, very large grasshoppers, wood-lice, cockchafers, with big and small centipedes.  In fact, the place teemed with insect life.  I should add that their names are given rather from the general appearance of the animals than from their true scientific classes.

“We had a big and fast scramble down, and about half way, when we could watch the sea breaking on the rocks far below, we saw that there was a bigger swell running.  It was getting late, and we made our way down as fast as we could—­denting our guns as we slipped on the rocks.

“The lower we got the bigger the sea which had risen in our absence appeared to be.  No doubt it was the swell of a big disturbance far away, and when we reached the debris slope where we had landed, flanked by big cliffs, we found everybody gathered there and the boats lying off—­it being quite impossible for them to get near the shore.

“They had just got a life-line ashore on a buoy.  Bowers went out on to the rocks and secured it.  We put our guns and specimens into a pile, out of reach, as we thought, of any possible sea.  But just afterwards two very large waves took us—­we were hauling in the rope, and must have been a good thirty feet above the base of the wave.  It hit us hard and knocked us all over the place, and wetted the guns and specimens above us through and through.

“We then stowed all gear and specimens well out of the reach of the seas, and then went out through the surf one by one, passing ourselves out on the line.  It was ticklish work, but Hooper was the only one who really had a bad time.  He did not get far enough out among the rocks which fringed the steep slope from which he started as a wave began to roll back.  The next wave caught him and crashed him back, and he let go of the line.  He was under quite a long time, and as the waves washed back all that we could do was to try and get the line to him.  Luckily he succeeded in finding the slack of the line and got out.

“When we first got down to the shore and things were looking nasty, Wilson sat down on the top of a rock and ate a biscuit in the coolest possible manner.  It was an example to avoid all panicking, for he did not want the biscuit.