accompanied by a rather heavy sea, so that our progress for the
time was far from satisfactory. On reaching the latitude of Algoa
Bay, on the east coast of Africa, it was decided on running in
there for coal, which we accordingly did, anchoring off the town
of Port Elizabeth on the 9th of June, and remaining there until
the morning of the i i th , when we resumed our voyage to the
Cape.
We arrived at Simon’s Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 14th
of June, and made a stay of fourteen days, which was necessary
in order to enable us to refit and revictual the ship, and otherwise
prepare for the homeward voyage through the Atlantic.
On one of the few days which I here spent on shore, I made
the acquaintance of a Mr. Black, a fine hale old man, a shipwright
by trade, who supplemented his regular work by collecting and
preparing for sale various curiosities of natural history, especially
the skins and horns of many South African animals of the antelope
family. His latest trophy was a very large specimen of the egg
of the Epiornis of Madagascar, a gigantic bird which would seem
to have become extinct almost within the historic period. He had
purchased this egg, as a commercial speculation, from the supercargo
of a trading schooner, and hoped to realize a considerable
profit by disposing of it to one of the European museums. It was
indeed of enormous proportions— although not actually the largest
on record— for it measured eleven and three-quarter inches in length
and eight and a half inches in breadth, while it had a capacity of
about eight quarts. The shell was one-eighth of an inch in thickness,
as I ascertained by measuring it at the smaller end, where
there w'as an aperture large enough to admit the thumb. He
could not give me any information as to the conditions under
which it was found, and although he had paid a large sum for it
seemed to be unaware of the fact that somewhat similar specimens
existed. It appeared to be in a sub-fossil condition, and was
dotted over externally with fine pits, so that its surface somewhat
resembled that of an old half-decayed human skull. About one-
Arrival Home.
third of its surface was stained uniformly of an earthy colour,
suggesting the idea that it must have remained for a long time
partially imbedded in the ground.
On the direct homeward voyage we stopped for a few days at
St. Helena, and also at Fayal in the Azores, finally reaching
Plymouth Sound on the 3rd of September, 1882, after an absence
from England of nearly four years.