ll as expeditious; for, as soon as
the boat had reached its proper point of immersion, it floated off the
wheels.

The ladies then got into the stern-sheets, alongside of the captain,
accompanied by Mr Meldrum, while four of the seamen took their places
on the thwarts in order to row them across--the remainder of the party
stopping where they were, along with a portion of the packages that had
been removed from the boat so as to make room for Mrs Major Negus and
the others who went with her. The carriage belonging to the boat was
also left behind until the latter should have deposited its first cargo
on the other side of the lake and return to fetch a fresh load.

Three trips were taken before the whole party were thus transported over
the lake, the boat's carriage being then towed over at the last
crossing.

It would be needless repetition to recount in detail all the different
portages of the jolly-boat over the strips of land which lay between the
chain of lakes that were spread over the line of their route; or, to
tell the number of the trips by water that had to be made.

There were many unloadings of the little craft, and many packings-up
again.

Many weary miles the poor unaccustomed pedestrians had to tramp,
sometimes up-hill, sometimes down dale, through marshy lands and over
stony boulders that blistered their feet; and all the while they had to
drag after them that terrible Frankenstein-like monster, the jolly-boat
mounted on its carriage, which seemed to the worn-out men sometimes a
species of Juggernaut car, crushing out their spirits and sapping their
every energy.

Suffice it to say, that, at the end of a fortnight's time, they at
length reached a magnificent stretch of blue water, which Mr Meldrum
said was Hillsborough Bay, on the eastern side of Kerguelen Land.

Hurrah--they had crossed the isthmus, and arrived so far towards the end
of their destination!

As they toiled over this neck of land which united the two principal
peninsulas into which the island was divided, they could mark how, as
had been noticed along the coast, the country was composed of a series
of terraced hills, rising above a chain of lakes and lagoons that
indented it deeply on either side and forming an endless succession of
deep fords and harbours, the hills being almost invariably covered, from
their crests down to a certain altitude, with perpetual snow. Below
this line, their sides were clothed with green verdure, c