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MR. BARRAUD. "Numbers of birds; penguins, albatrosses, gulls, ducks, cormorants, &c.; and the island is the resort of seals and sea-elephants." CHARLES. "It cannot be a very pretty place?" MR. STANLEY. "Here is an idea of it. The whole island appears to be deeply indented by bays and inlets, the surface intersected by numerous small lakes and water-courses.
Our merry attendants, the flying-fish, and others which swarmed about us in the torrid zone, refused to see us across the tropic, and the only aquatics we fell in with afterwards were clumsy whales and grampuses, and occasionally a shoal of white porpoises. Of birds there were plenty, especially albatrosses.
Some more of the young albatrosses made a noble end in our pot. The birds were nesting on a small plateau above the right-hand end of our beach. We had previously discovered that when we were landing from the boat on the night of May 10 we had lost the rudder. The 'James Caird' had been bumping heavily astern as we were scrambling ashore, and evidently the rudder was then knocked off.
It told of deep-sea soundings and investigations into the creatures at the bottom of the sea, of Portuguese men-of-war, and albatrosses; and there were some orders to scientific-instrument makers for her to send to them a very improving letter, but a good deal like a book of travels.
And the great albatrosses veered and circled about us, beating up into the bitter violence of the gale and sweeping grandly away before it far faster than it blew. Margaret forbore from looking to challenge me with eloquent, questioning eyes. With numb fingers inside my thick mitten, I drew aside the ear- flap of her sou'wester and shouted: "It is nothing new. I have been here before.
This is done by forming narrow paths, very smooth, and crossing each other at right angles throughout the entire extent of the rookery. At each intersection of these paths the nest of an albatross is constructed, and a penguin's nest in the centre of each square thus every penguin is surrounded by four albatrosses, and each albatross by a like number of penguins.
Our faithful companions of the westerly belt the albatrosses had now disappeared, and we could soon begin to look out for the first representatives of the winged inhabitants of Antarctica.
Gulls and albatrosses, strong, glad life in the midst of the stormy beauty, skimmed the waves against the wind, seemingly without effort, oftentimes flying nearly a mile without a single wing-beat, gracefully swaying from side to side and tracing the curves of the briny water hills with the finest precision, now and then just grazing the highest.
Amongst large-winged birds, carried a long distance from all lands and resting upon the waves from the fatigue of their flight, I saw some magnificent albatrosses, uttering discordant cries like the braying of an ass, and birds belonging to the family of the long-wings. As to the fish, they always provoked our admiration when we surprised the secrets of their aquatic life through the open panels.
Though the melting and stowing away of the ice takes up some time, and is, indeed, rather tedious, this method of watering is otherwise the most expeditious our commander had ever known. The water produced was perfectly sweet and well tasted. Upon the ice islands, penguins, albatrosses, and other birds were frequently seen.
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