peeped
out.

"It was a moonlight night, and I could see a big head trying to thrust
itself in at the other end of the hole. A moment later he began to
scrape away at the sides. I lit the bundle of flax. It flared up
fiercely, and I thrust it out full into the beast's face. He gave a
roar, and off he went as fast as his feet would carry him. They tried it
a dozen times if they did it once; but the torch was too much for them,
and the seal bone in its middle must have given them some nasty wounds,
for I generally saw blood on the snow in the morning. Whenever I went to
get a fresh store of meat and blubber I could see how they had trampled
on the snow at the foot of the rock, and how they had scratched its face
in trying to get up at it, but it was all no manner of good. I was
chased two or three times by them when I went out to gather my cabbages,
but I always managed to get into my hole before they overtook me, and
they had learned to give that a wide berth.

"It seemed to me that winter was never going to be over; but I was young
and had good spirits and was fond of a song, and I used to lie there and
sing by the hour. Then I used to go over in my mind all the v'yges I had
made and to remember the yarns I had heard, and would go over the talks
I had had with Jack and Tom and Harry. You would be surprised how I kept
my spirits up. You see I was a young fellow, and young fellows take
things cheerful and make light of what would break them down when they
get older. I never had a day's illness, which I set down to them
cabbages. I never saw them anywhere else, and I larnt arterwards that
Kerguelen Island--for that was the place I was thrown on--was famous for
them.

"When spring came and the snow melted I made up a package of forty
pounds of meat, for the seals had not come yet, and started to make a
tour of the island. I thought such a place as this was pretty well sure
to be used by whalers in summer; and if so, I should find signs of their
having been there. I made a few excursions first, and found I was pretty
near the middle of the island--of course on the westerly side. I climbed
a high hill, but I did not learn much except that the island was a big
one, and there were hills both to the north and south that looked to me
as if they must be thirty or forty miles away. As far as I could see of
the west coast of the island the cliffs were everywhere precipitous; and
though at the east they did not seem much better, I