much provision collected
as we shall either want or can carry, and as Ben has finished the boat-
carriage, I don't see any reason for delaying our departure a single
day!"

Mr Meldrum was as good as his word. He gave out an intimation of the
projected start on the morrow to the household the same evening, as soon
as the two reached the little dwelling by the creek which they were
about to abandon so remorselessly after the long shelter it had given
them in their adversity!

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

ACROSS COUNTRY.

It was a lovely morning, the loveliest that the shipwrecked people had
seen since their landing on Kerguelen Land, when the little party
started away from Penguin Castle, bidding adieu to the spot which for so
many long months had given them a shelter and a home.

The sun was shining out brightly, the sky without a cloud, and the air
felt quite warm, although with a freshness in it that just gave zest to
movement; while the atmosphere had that peculiar opalescent translucency
about it and an almost imperceptible colouring--in the faintest tints of
light mauve and amber, with a shade of tender apple-green--which is
rarely seen in more northern latitudes, excepting in those regions that
are well within the borders of the Arctic circle.

Out in the bay opposite the creek, the water was as smooth as glass,
undisturbed by the slightest breath of wind so as to cause a ripple; and
numbers of baby puffins and young penguins, their spruce little downy
bodies clad in bright new coats of silky feathers, were scattered in
groups over the mirror-like expanse, diving and coming up again in a
moment in the centre of a series of expanding circles that gradually
grew wider and wider in diameter, as when a stone is flung into a still
pond, only to disappear the next minute. Others were flitting along
over the surface with the pinions of their little wings just dipped in
the water, so that they flicked it up, in the short flights they took
now and then in play and mimic pursuit of each other, like as rowing men
do when they "feather" their oars too soon in lumpy water. Sometimes,
the generally restless birdlets would rest tranquilly for a brief while
on the bosom of the sea, chattering away like so many aquatic magpies in
miniature mottled flocks; but this was only for a very short spell.

To the right of the creek, rising abruptly out of the sea, the black
basaltic cliffs which formed such a bold headland to the b