t their moving. Then I jumped up.
There was a young seal lying not ten feet from me, and before he had
time to turn I smashed down my bit of rock between his eyes, and there
he lay dead.

"Raw seal's flesh ain't a sort of food as you would take for choice, but
I was too hungry to think about cooking, and I ate as big a meal as ever
I had in my life. Up till then I hadn't really thought as there was any
chance of my being saved in the long run. Now I felt as there was, and
for the first time I felt really grateful that I had not shared in the
fate of my messmates, and I knelt down and thanked God for having
brought me safe to shore. Then I set-to to climb up to the top of the
cliffs. It was hard work, and, as I afterwards found, I had just hit, by
God's mercy, on the only spot on that part of the island where I could
have got up, for in most places the cliffs rose pretty near straight up
four or five hundred feet above the sea.

"When I got to the top I saw that there were some mighty high hills
covered with snow to the south-east, which might have been fifteen or
twenty miles away. It was a dreary kind of country--rocky and desolate,
with tufts of thin grass growing in the crevices of the rocks; and I saw
that there was precious little chance of picking up a living there, and
that if I was to get grub it was to the sea I must look for it. I
thought the best thing to do was to try and find out some sheltered sort
of cove where, perhaps, I might find a bit of a cave, for I knew that
when winter came on there would be no chance for me in the open; so I
set out to walk. I brought up with me a big hunk of flesh that would
last me for three or four days, and what I had got to look for was fresh
water. I walked all that day, keeping along pretty close to the edge of
the cliff. I found plenty of little pools of rain-water among the rocks,
and did pretty well. I was not hungry enough to tackle raw flesh that
night, and had nothing to make a fire with. I had got matches in my
pocket in a tight-fitting brass box which had kept them dry, but there
was no fuel.

"The next morning I started again, and after walking for four or five
hours came to a spot where the cliffs broke away sudden. Getting to the
edge I saw that there was a narrow bay stretching some way up into the
island. An hour's walk brought me to its head. Here, as I had hoped, I
found a little stream running down into it. When you find a bay, most
times you will find