. The Ship was in
sight!

There were wild cheers down at the Hut when they heard the news. They
could not believe us and immediately rushed up with glasses to the
nearest ridge to get the evidence of their own senses. The masts, the
funnel and the staunch hull rose out of the ocean as we watched on the
hills through the early hours of a superb morning. The sun was streaming
warmly over the plateau and a cool land breeze had sprung up from the
south, as the 'Aurora' rounded the Mackellar Islets and steamed up to
her old anchorage. We picked out familiar figures on the bridge and
poop, and made a bonfire of kerosene, benzine and lubricating oil in a
rocky crevice in their honour.

The indescribable moment was when Davis came ashore in the whale-boat,
manned by two of the Macquarie Islanders (Hamilton and Blake), Hurley
and Hunter. They rushed into the Hut, and we tried to tell the story of
a year in a few minutes.

On the Ship we greeted Gillies, Gray, de la Motte, Ainsworth, Sandell
and Correll. It was splendid to know that the world contained so many
people, and to see these men who had stuck to the Expedition through
"thick and thin." Then came the fusillade of letters, magazines and
"mysterious" parcels and boxes. At dinner we sat down reunited in the
freshly painted ward-room, striving to collect our bewildered thoughts
at the sight of a white tablecloth, Australian mutton, fresh vegetables,
fruit and cigars.

The two long years were over--for the moment they were to be effaced
in the glorious present. We were to live in a land where drift and wind
were unknown, where rain fell in mild, refreshing showers, where the sky
was blue for long weeks, and where the memories of the past were to fade
into a dream--a nightmare?

CHAPTER XXV LIFE ON MACQUARIE ISLAND

By G. F. Ainsworth

Left on an island in mid-ocean!

It suggests the romances of youthful days--Crusoe, Sindbad and all their
glorious company. Still, when this narrative is completed, imagination
will be seen to have played a small part. In fact, it is a plain tale of
our experiences, descriptive of a place where we spent nearly two years
and of the work accomplished during our stay.

The island was discovered in 1810 by Captain Hasselborough of the ship
'Perseverance', which had been dispatched by Campbell and Sons, of
Sydney, under his command to look for islands inhabited by fur seals.
Macquarie Islands, named by Hasselborough after the Govern