“He remarked afterwards to me, apropos to Hooper, that it was a curious thing that a number of men, knowing that there was nothing they could do, could quietly watch a man fighting for his life, and he did not think that any but the British temperament could do so.  I also found out later that he and I had both had a touch of cramp while waiting for our turn to swim out through the surf.”

The following is Bowers’ letter: 

    “Sunday, 31st July.

“The past week has been so crowded with incident, really, that I don’t know where to start.  Getting to land made me long for the mails from you, which are such a feature of getting to port.  However, the strange uninhabited island which we visited will have to make up for my disappointment till we get to Capetown—­or rather Simon’s Town.  Campbell and I sighted S. Trinidad from the fore yardarm on 25th, and on 26th, at first thing in the morning, we crept up to an anchorage in a sea of glass.  The S.E.  Trades, making a considerable sea, were beating on the eastern sides, while the western was like a mill-pond.  The great rocks and hills to over 2000 feet towered above us as we went in very close in order to get our anchor down, as the water is very deep to quite a short distance from the shore.  West Bay was our selection, and so clear was the water that we could see the anchor at the bottom in 15 fathoms.  A number of sharks and other fish appeared at once and several birds.  Evans wanted to explore, so Oates, Rennick, Atkinson and myself went away with him—­pulling the boat.  We examined the various landings and found them all rocky and dangerous.  There was a slight surf although the sea looked like a mill-pond.  We finally decided on a previously unused place, which was a little inlet among the rocks.

“There was nothing but rock, but there was a little nook where we decided to try and land.  We returned to breakfast and found that Wilson and Cherry-Garrard had shot several Frigate and other birds from the ship, the little Norwegian boat—­called a Pram—­being used to pick them up.  By way of explanation I may say that Wilson is a specialist in birds and is making a collection for the British Museum.

“We all landed as soon as possible.  Wilson and Garrard with their guns for birds:  Oates with the dogs, and Atkinson with a small rifle:  Lillie after plants and geological specimens:  Nelson and Simpson along the shore after sea beasts, etc.:  and last but not least came the entomological party, under yours truly, with Wright and, later, Evans, as assistants.  Pennell joined up with Wilson, so altogether we were ready to ‘do’ the island.  I have taken over the collection of insects for the expedition, as the other scientists all have so much to do that they were only too glad to shove the small beasts on me.  Atkinson is a specialist in parasites:  it is called ‘Helminthology.’  I never heard that name before.  He turns out the