At last, when we had got within two cables' length of the shore, we encountered enormous green flakes of floating sea-weed, which, becoming entangled with the rudder, made further progress possible only by dint of most strenuous exertions. This proved to be the same gigantic sea-tangle of the Southern hemispheres (_Macrocystis Pyrifera_), which likewise constitutes a barrier of _fucus_ on the East side of St. Paul. The sea-calves mentioned by older describers were nowhere to be seen; but on the other hand we had an opportunity of satisfying ourselves as to the immense abundance of fish which frequent the coast of the island in a truly astonishing degree, although the American whaler had prepared us by his remarks. From bow and stern of the boat hooks and lines were hung out, and several of the crew were at once kept busy hauling in the lines, at the end of each of which there usually struggled a fish of some two or three feet long. These were chiefly umber fish, which are also very plentiful about St. Paul, where, from their delicacy, they formed a favourite dish at our otherwise very frugal repasts.
We had now got so near, that we could distinctly perceive grass and the stems of ferns growing among the clefts of the rocks. However, although there was a dead calm, and the sea outside was as smooth as glass, the long ground-swell of the ocean, with its broad flat billows, caused such a heavy surf on the rock-bound stony beach, that the attempt to pass it was not to be thought of. The further we advanced along the coast in a northernly direction, the more distant we got from the ship, and unluckily in an equal degree our hopes were disappointed of finding a spot at which we could land, and scramble from the strand up the steep bank to the level ground above. The south-easternmost point, which at a distance presented the appearance of a low headland jutting out into the sea, behind which we had hoped to find a good landing-place, now that we had got close to it, proved to be a small detached rock; while the shore, as far as the eye could reach, rose like a wall to a height of from 150 to 200 feet. There now hove in sight five whalers, who seemed hunting that most valuable of all the inhabitants of the deep, of the spots frequented by which Maury's renowned Whale Charts have lately supplied so interesting and useful a code of instruction. These charts, which are based on a vast number of observations, of the tracts of ocean and seasons of the year at which whales are most frequently seen, will at the same time greatly tend to a solution of the question as to the migration of these enormous mammals; for it has never yet been settled, whether these animals flee from the pursuit of man to remote seas, thus continually constraining their pursuers to seek their prey in new waters, or whether, (as is the most prevalent opinion), they are always entirely extirpated from one locality, and accordingly are only to be met with in any numbers in some different area, in which man has as yet only rarely, if ever, disturbed them.[74]