I found the shore, in a manner, covered with penguins and other birds, and seals. These latter were not numerous, but so insensible of fear (which plainly indicated that they were unaccustomed to such visitors), that we killed as many as we chose, for the sake of their fat or blubber, to make oil for our lamps, and other uses. Fresh water was in no less plenty than were birds; for every gully afforded a large stream. But not a single tree or shrub, nor the least sign of any, was to be discovered, and but very little herbage of any sort. The appearances, as we sailed into the harbour, had flattered us with the hope of meeting with something considerable growing here, as we observed the sides of many of the hills to be of a lively green. But I now found that this was occasioned by a single plant, which, with the other natural productions, shall be described in another place. Before I returned to my ship, I ascended the first ridge of rocks, which rise in a kind of amphitheatre above one another. I was in hopes, by this means, of obtaining a view of the country; but before I reached the top, there came on so thick a fog, that I could hardly find my way down again. In the evening, we hauled the seine at the head of the harbour, but caught only half-a-dozen small fish. We had no better success next day, when we tried with hook and line. So that our only resource here, for fresh provisions, were birds, of which there was an inexhaustible store. The morning of the 26th proved foggy, with rain. However, we went to work to fill water, and to cut grass for our cattle, which we found in small spots near the head of the harbour. The rain which fell swelled all the rivulets to such a degree, that the sides of the hills, bounding the harbour, seemed to be covered with a sheet of water. For the rain, as it fell, ran into the fissures and crags of the rocks that composed the interior parts of the hills, and was precipitated down their sides in prodigious torrents. The people having wrought hard the two preceding days, and nearly completed our water, which we filled from a brook at the left corner of the beach, I allowed them the 27th, as a day of rest, to celebrate Christmas. Upon this indulgence, many of them went on shore, and made excursions, in different directions, into the country, which they found barren and desolate in the highest degree. In the evening, one of them brought to me a quart-bottle which he had found, fastened with some wire to a projecting rock on the north side of the harbour. This bottle contained apiece of parchment, on which was written the following inscription: _Ludovico XV. Galliarum rege, et d.[125] de Boynes regi a Secretis ad res maritimas annis 1772 et 1773._