196 cook's SECOND VOYAGE JAN. 



Here were several flocks of penguins, the largest 

 I ever saw ; some, which we brought on board, 

 weighed from twenty-nine to thirty-eight pounds. 

 It appears by Bougainville's account of the animals 

 of Falkland Islands, that this penguin is there ; and I 

 think it is very well described by him under the name 

 of First Class of Penguins. * The Oceanic birds 

 were albatrosses, common gulls, and that sort which 

 I call Port Egmont hens, terns, shags, divers, 

 the new white bird, and a small bird like those of 

 the Cape of Good Hope, called yellow birds ; 

 which, having shot two, we found most delicious 

 food. 



All the land birds we saw consisted of a few small 

 larks ; nor did we meet with any quadrupeds. Mr. 

 Forster, indeed, observed some dung, which he judged 

 to come from a fox, or some such animal. The 

 lands, or rather rocks, bordering on the sea-coast, 

 were not covered with snow like the inland parts ; 

 but all the vegetation we could see on the clear 

 places was the grass above mentioned. The rocks 

 seemed to contain iron. Having made the above 

 observations, we set out for the ship, and got on 

 board a little after twelve o'clock, with a quantity of 

 seals and penguins, an acceptable present to the 

 crew. 



It must not, however, be understood that we were 

 in want of provisions : we had yet plenty of every 

 kind ; and since we had been on this coast, I had 

 ordered, in addition to the common allowance, wheat 

 to be boiled every morning for breakfast ; but any 

 kind of fresh meat was preferred by most on board to 

 salt. For my own part, I was now, for the first time, 

 heartily tired of salt meat of every kind ; and though 

 the flesh of the penguins could scarcely vie with 

 bullock's liver, its being fresh was sufficient to make 

 it go down. I called the bay we had been in, Pos- 



* See Bougainville, p. 64. 



