Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/163

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Chap. IV.]
ZOOLOGICAL NOTICE.
89
1840

were nearly full; that from their great numbers constant accidents were happening in the thick fogs which prevail, by running foul of each other; and several vessels arrived at the Cape in a very shattered state. This fishery might be most successfully pursued from the Cape of Good Hope, but it is now chiefly carried on by American vessels.

Several kinds of fish were seen, and a large collection was made, amongst them were many new species. In the account now publishing by Dr. Richardson, he has described two new genera, under the names Notothenia, of which three species were found here, and Chæmethys, of which there is yet only one known species, Rhinoceratus; it has a general resemblance to the gurnards and prionotes: all the species of these two genera inhabit the kelp weed of the shores of the harbour; they were taken by the hook, and proved acceptable to the table, being some of them a foot and a half long; they feed on Entomostraca, and small shell-fish that live amongst the weed.

Fifteen different species of sea-fowl were shot in the harbour, or found along its shores; amongst these, several species of petrel, three kinds of penguin, two species of gull, a duck, a cormorant, a tern, and a curious "chionis," different in some particulars from that first described by Forster, and probably a new species.

Of the sooty albatross (Diomedea fuliginosa), which appeared to have selected this as a breeding station, several young birds were still to be met