hey must originally have been formed on shore, and then
floated away by some unusually high-tide or commotion of the sea. It
explains also the appearance of boulders in places where it would be
difficult otherwise to account for their being found.

I have seen birds in great numbers on rocks in the ocean, in different
parts of the globe, but never have I beheld so many as there were on an
island we one day sighted before steering north. There was but little
wind, and as the captain thought a supply of birds, although of a
somewhat fishy taste, would be an acceptable addition to our daily fare
of salt junk and salt pork, he directed the third mate, with Newman, me,
and four other men, to take a boat and bring off as many as we could
kill. Calm as it was, the surf rolled so heavily in on the rocks that
it was a work of no little difficulty and danger to approach them so as
to gain a footing out of the reach of the waves. The mate ordered an
anchor to be let go, and, veering away on the cable, we dropped
gradually in; and while, boat-hook in hand, one at a time leaped on
shore, the boat-keepers with their oars kept the boat head to sea, and
as soon as we had landed, which we did not succeed in doing without a
thorough ducking, they hauled the boat off beyond the breakers.

The island on which we stood was a wild, desolate place. Not a tree or
a shrub was to be seen; but the hills, which rose to a considerable
height above the ocean, were covered with a long thick grass, of a
character similar to what grows on the Falkland Islands. Here and there
dark rocks cropped out, and the sides of the island were formed in many
parts of lofty, precipitous cliffs; while in others, such as the place
we had landed on, were rugged rocks sloping gradually down to the sea.
A thick fringe of kelp, a slippery sort of sea-weed, added somewhat to
the difficulties of our landing. As we advanced, we were assailed by
the most frightful gabbling, and screeching, and quacking I ever heard,
from thousands and thousands of wild-fowls, chiefly penguins of various
species. The whole hillside was literally covered with them and their
eggs in dense masses. Nothing daunted at our appearance, when they
found that the hubbub they made could not compel us to retreat, they
commenced a fierce attack on us with their beaks, pulling at our
trousers and pecking at our flesh. In our own defence we were obliged
to lay about us with the boat's stretchers, a