The first day was devoted partly to preparations for a sealing excursion to the Jason Islands, and partly to recreation. West Point Island abounds with hogs and goats, the hunting of which is both pleasant for exercise, and profitable by supplying excellent food. Here are no tangled forests to embarrass the sportsman, nor bushes or briars to annoy his clothes or his flesh. Neither are there gnats, moschetos, sand-flies, snakes, scorpions, or other reptiles, to render every step dangerous or painful. Near the shore, which is fringed with granite rocks, a border of tussoc extends around the island, like a belt, of from one-eighth to a quarter of a mile in width. The tussoc flag grows from the top of a bog formed apparently by the roots of the plants which had flourished and decayed on the spot for many successive years. The bogs are, usually, three to five feet in height, and one to three feet in diameter. The substance of them resembles cork, though it is less compact. They stand irregularly one to two feet asunder, so as to afford convenient room for a passage between them, in every direction, over a foundation of much the same substance as the bogs themselves, which is usually quite dry. The dry white tussoc grass of preceding years hangs round the top of the bog like a broad frill; while the fresh green growth, which waves over the top like a tuft of lofty feathers, gives the whole, when viewed from a distance, the aspect of an extensive field of indian corn. The root of the fresh tussoc is pleasant to the palate, being much like the meat of a chestnut, and it affords an abundance of excellent feed to the hogs, that enjoy an elysium here. Within this border of tussoc, and from it to the steep ascent of the mountains, a region of grass intervenes, which has the appearance of a rich upland meadow. It grows about knee high, and extends as far as the rise of the land is moderate. Beyond it, short mountain grass and a few heath plants are found contending with fragments of granite, and with the polar blasts to which the lofty summit of the mountain is exposed. It was delightful, after a confinement on ship-board, to ramble over this sequestered and pleasant scene; to chase the wild hogs from their tussoc covert to the rising grounds, where they were sure victims of the spear or the bullet; and to invade from above the retreats of the gigantic albatross, in the cliffs of perpendicular rocks, a thousand feet above the sea.