water running in at its head. The ground sloped
gradually here in great terraces; the rock was hard and black, and
looked as if it had been burnt. I have heard since that it was what they
call volcanic. Being so sheltered there were more things growing here,
wherever a little earth had gathered; and I saw some things for all the
world like cabbages, and made up my mind to try them, when I got a
chance, with my seal-meat.

"At last I got down near the water. Just at the head of the bay was a
shelving shore, and along at the sides, as far as I could see it was
rocky, and there were plenty of seals here too. Along on the beach and
on the rock and on the terraces were quantities of birds--penguins, as I
knew from what I had heard of them. They did not try to get out of my
way, but just made an angry sort of noise. 'I will talk to you
presently, my hearties,' I said; 'what I have got to do now is to look
for a shelter.' It was the end of April, and I knew that it would not be
long before winter would be upon me, and if I was not out of it by that
time I should soon be frozen stiff. I did not go near the seals, for I
did not want to frighten them. I looked about the rest of that afternoon
and all next day, but I could not find what you might properly call a
cave, and so determined to make use of the best place I could fix upon.
This was a spot in the lower terrace, in the face of the rock. It seemed
as if the lower part was softer than the upper, which was black and hard
and almost like glass. Underneath this the rock had crumbled away
perhaps six feet in depth.

"This soft rock was about four feet thick. It was more gone in some
places than others. I chose a spot where a hole was about eight feet
long, and made up my mind to close up the front of this, just leaving a
hole big enough for me to crawl in and out. First of all I brought up
some big stones and built a wall and filled up the crevices with tufts
of grass. Then I brought up smaller stones and piled against them,
shooting in sand from the beach till I had made a regular solid bank,
four feet thick, against the wall. Then I levelled the bottom of the
cave with sand and spread it thickly with dried grass. All this took me
five days' hard work. There was no difficulty about food. I had only to
go and pick up a few stones and go among the penguins and knock them
over. I made a shift to cook them over fires made of dry tufts of grass.

"I had been careful not to disturb