284 Voyage of the Novara. 



great care, and defend them with extraordinary courage and 

 pertinacity against the southern hawk gull* (stercorarius ant- 

 arcticus), which frequently swoops upon the breeding-ground, 

 and even ventures within reach of man, from whom it defends 

 itself by violently striking and biting with its beak. Always 

 at war under ordinary circumstances, they are nevertheless the 

 most faithful of allies in moments of common danger or neces- 

 sity. The flesh of the old penguin has so rank a smell that it 

 is only used by those frequenting the island in case of the most 

 extraordinary necessity; that of the young, on the other hand, 

 has a far more agreeable flavour. 



The breeding-place of the penguin is about 300 feet above the 

 level of the water in the basin of the crater.* Four hundred 

 feet more of laborious, steep scrambling, brings the adven- 

 turer to the plateau at last, from the highest peaks of which he 

 readily obtains a view of the greater part of the island, which is 

 utterly treeless. At many places we found the ground quite 

 warm, and at one slimy tract, about 6OO feet wide, which was 

 noticed by the naturalists on board the Lion, there was 

 positive danger of sinking several feet into the hot, yielding 

 soil, if we did not advance with great care. On the other hand, 

 the fierce tongues of flame, which Lord Macartney alleged were 



* A second breeding-place, somewhat larger, but much more inaccessible than 

 that described, occm-s on the north-west side of the island. There among nigged 

 fantastically broken masses of rock, these extraordinary crcatui'es can sun them- 

 selTcs undisturbed, and have hardly anything to di'oad from the destro^-ing hand of 

 man, who could only get tluther with much difficulty, and not without peril to life, 

 by clambering along the face of a precipitous wall of rock. 



