ip. At one
o'clock we steered for an island of ice, thinking if there were any loose
ice round it, to take some on board, and convert it into fresh water. At
four we brought-to, close under the lee of the island, where we did not
find what we wanted, but saw upon it eighty-six penguins. This piece of ice
was about half a mile in circuit, and one hundred feet high and upwards,
for we lay for some minutes with every sail becalmed under it. The side on
which the penguins were, rose sloping from the sea, so as to admit them to
creep up it.

It is a received opinion, that penguins never go far from land, and that
the sight of them is a sure indication of its vicinity. The opinion may
hold good where there are no ice islands; but where such are, these birds,
as well as many others which usually keep near the shores, finding a
roosting-place upon these islands, may be brought by them a great distance
from any land. It will, however, be said, that they must go on shore to
breed, that probably the females were there, and that these are only the
males which we saw. Be this as it may, I shall continue to take notice of
these birds whenever we see them, and leave every one to judge for himself.

We continued our course to the westward, with a gentle gale at E.N.E., the
weather being sometimes tolerably clear, and at other times thick and hazy,
with snow. The thermometer for a few days past was from 31 to 36. At nine
o'clock the next morning, being the 30th, we shot one of the white birds,
upon which we lowered a boat into the water to take it up, and by that
means killed a penguin which weighed eleven pounds and a half. The white
bird was of the peterel tribe; the bill, which is rather short, is of a
colour between black and dark blue, and their legs and feet are blue. I
believe them to be the same sort of birds that Bouvet mentions to have seen
when he was off Cape Circumcision.

We continued our westerly course till eight o'clock in the evening, when we
steered N.W., the point on which I reckoned the above-mentioned cape to
bear. At midnight we fell in with loose ice, which soon after obliged us to
tack, and stretch to the southward. At half an hour past two o'clock in the
morning of the 31st, we stood for it again, thinking to take some on board,
but this was found impracticable; for the wind, which had been at N.E, now
veered to S.E., and increasing to a fresh gale, brought with it such a sea
as made it very dangerous for the