tain which was smoking, and as the shore
seemed to shelve down here, Moody determined to endeavour to land there,
saying that they would find the vicinity of the volcano warm and
comfortable--better than some frozen ice-glaciers which they had noticed
further north.

After many attempts and failures, they managed to run the boat on to a
black sandy stretch of beach which opened out beyond the smoking
mountain; and here, they unloaded her in safety.

They had then more provisions than would have lasted them for months
with care.

"All of ourn!" ejaculated Mr Lathrope, interrupting the steward at this
point of the narrative. "We would ha' swopped some o' them penguins and
Kerguelen cabbage fur the lot, I guess."

But, continued Llewellyn, the men wasted all the stores, recklessly
destroying much more than they ate; for they pitched away half-consumed
cans of preserved meat, opening fresh ones with the greatest
carelessness before requiring them.

Besides all this, there was the drink--a curse which followed them from
the ship.

Moody had contrived to secrete a cask of rum in the boat before quitting
the wreck, and this was opened soon after landing, he and most of the
mutineers drinking themselves drunk and indulging in the wildest orgies
whilst it lasted.

One evening, about a week after they had got ashore, in the middle of a
drunken debauch Moody set fire to a tent, which they had constructed out
of some of the spare sails placed in the boat. It was completely burnt,
many of the men being almost roasted alive before they could extricate
themselves and three dying subsequently from the injuries they had then
received.

This was not the worst, however; for, in addition to the tent, their
entire stock of provisions, which were stored inside, was consumed; and,
beyond a few of the half-eaten tins that had been previously thrown
away, they had nothing afterwards left to eat.

Starvation stared them in the face.

"Did you not search about and find the cabbage that we got here?" asked
Mr Meldrum.

"No," replied the steward; "the whole land thereabouts, before the snow
fell, was as bare as a brick-field, and just as black and burnt up
like."

"And did no seals or birds come?"

"Some animals swam in one day," said Llewellyn, "but the men were drunk
at the time and frightened them away; so they never came back again when
we needed them. Only a stray gull or two occasionally flew by, so far
out of reach that