A Voyage round the World: A book for boysKingston, William Henry Giles
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A Voyage round the World: A book for boys
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Voyages around the world -- Juvenile fiction
We found this gave a remarkably keen edge to our appetites;
so we sat down by the stream and produced a piece of the steak we had
cooked the previous evening, and the remains of our biscuit. While
discussing them, Jerry exclaimed that he saw something galloping along
the shore.
"Is it a bull?" I asked, thinking that we might have to decamp, and
looking out for a place of safety.
"It comes on very fast," he answered. I jumped up, for I was sitting a
little below him, and looked in the direction he pointed.
"It's old Surley! it's old Surley!" I shouted. "Our friends cannot be
far-off."
On came the old dog, and was very soon jumping up and licking our hands
and faces, and wagging his tail, till it looked as if he would wag it
off. He seemed in no way displeased at receiving a piece of beef; and
as soon as he had got it he began to trot off with it in his mouth in
the direction from which he had come. After going a few yards, however,
he stopped and turned half round, and wagged his tail, as much as to
say, "Come along with me; I trotted all the way on purpose to fetch
you."
We took up our guns to show that we were about to follow; and on this he
began to jump, and frisk about, and bark, to exhibit his satisfaction,
and then he stopped and went on a little, and then stopped again to see
that we were following. In great hopes that he was leading us to our
friends, we went on as fast as we could walk. Our path led us under
some cliffs which were literally crowded with penguins and young
albatrosses, or mollimauks. There was a regular encampment or rookery
of them, extending for five or six hundred yards in length, and from one
to two dozen in breadth. The nests of the albatrosses were nearly a
foot high, and of a cup-like form. Feathers were just beginning to
spread on the backs and wings of the young birds, and to take the place
of the down with which they had originally been covered. Old Surley
passed by without taking any notice of them. When we approached the
spot they set up a loud gabbling, and spouted out an oily substance at
us. The penguins were much more dignified, and looked at us with silent
contempt. The surface of the sea near at hand was covered with the
parent birds, and the air was alive with them as they flew backward and
forward to carry food to their young; but as, following old Surley's
example, we did not attempt to molest their broods, they took no notice
of us. The penguins were the most numerous, and appeared to be the
original inhabitants of the spot. They were arranged with great
regularity, those having just broken the shell being together, as were
those with their feathers appearing, and also those expecting soon to
fly. Never had I seen so many birds together. However, we were too
anxious about our friends to stop, so we hurried on after old Surley.
From the steady way in which he proceeded, we felt sure that he was
leading us in the right direction. Nor were we deceived. Before long
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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