FIELD NATURALISTS: CLUB

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2694, 14 February 1916, Page 9

FIELD NATURALISTS: CLUB

: $ WONDER S OF MACQUARIE ISLAND _ Oil Thursday evening ah instructive ad oress was given before the Field Natural Tats' dub fin Macquarie Island, by Mr H. Hamilton, of the dominion Museum and. late biologist to the Mawson Expedi tion. Tho lecturer dealt with Maequarii Islandjn general, touching upon its his lory, eTTmate, physiography, Mjology, geo ana botany. Macquarie Island, In t saiu, was discovered iu 1810 by a sealer Captain Hasselbourgh, of the ship Perse v-erance. Prom that time onward the is land was the centre of quite a large ,oi industry, the oil being extracted fron seals and penguins. Tho first scientist to visit the island were two Russians, wh< set foot on the island in 1820, and eol lected botanical and other specimens About 1832, however, was the earliest dab on, which, botanical specimens from tin island were recorded. These were sent t< Ken - , England, by Mr. C. Frascr, super inteudent oL' the Sydney Botanical liar dens, who probably had reeeived then irom a sealing trader. Scientific investi nations of a later date were .carried o) loy Professor J. H. Scott, of Otaeo Uui versTiy, and by Mr. A. Hamilton, late Di rector of the Dominion Museum, Wei lington, whose works were-'both publishe( In ijie Transactioiu of the New Zealant institute. These visits were made respect ively in 18S0 and in 1801. Apart from tin botanyhowever, very little was knowi about the biology of the island, and ii order that tho biology, should be thor I oughly studied the lecturer was appointei as biologist to the Mnwson Expedition 'One of the most noteworthy features o: Be island was its olimate, tne winter am - summer being practically the same ii varying degrees of wind, rain and sleet The lowest temperature experienced wa 19 degrees, and the highest 57 degrees The climate of a, place, ho Eaid, was ex tremely important, as bv it was regulate* its flora _ and fauna. Macquarie Islam biologically is of remarkable interest, in asmuch as it provides a link in the cnaii of small islands dotted throughout tin Southern Hemisphere and whose flora am fauna resemble one another so closely The lecturer, after defining the climat end its effects, gave some idea of what tli animal life on the island was like. Th< most remarkable denizens were the seal and the penguins. The • lecturer deal fairly fully with the modes of life of bot] seal and penguin. There Kero severs varieties of seals, but by far the laiges was tlTe ,r sea elephant." This seal wliei full grown measures in length over 2 feet, and in girth over 15 feet. The weigh gf a seal this size was calculated by th lebofi-ev to be between five and six tons A newly-born pup weighed llolb?, an. Iras Bit. 2in. in length. The nomenclatur he said of the seal was peculiar, the mal being called a bull, the female a cow, am the young a pup—not a caif. Next in in terest to the seals came the penguins. 0 these there are four different kinds, th King Penguin, the Royal Penguin, til Victoria penguin, and the Eockhopper. B far .the most important is tho Royal. 1 is from this that o'il is extracted. Con corning the habits of life tho lecture dealt very fully with both the seal an< tho penguins dealing with their oominj and going, their breeding, their care.o young, and with their mode of life in gen oral when on the island. The botany o the island the lecturer also touched upon j jie iiTiwd is extremely bleak, and u trees whatever are growing on it. Th main vegetation ib tussock (Poa foliosn on the damp lowlands, Htilbouarpa polarb and t ?oa fo]iona on the hill sides am on the wind-swept top a remarkable cush fon-liKe pland, Azorella Selago. The ad ™ dress "uTroughout was illustrated by man; jj excellent photographs illustrative of plan and animal life..