WILD LIFE ACROSS THE WORLD 



passagQ-way, passed into smoother water. It needed 

 good seamanship to prevent the boat being dashed 

 upon one of these coral walls. Safely through, we 

 entered a gap in the island, beyond which lay our 

 landing-place. 



The penguins' breeding-ground was nearly a mile 

 on the other side of the island. It was there I obtained 

 my pictures of these birds, but I had to be quick, as 

 only some half-hour of light was left. 



I found a Dutch keeper whose family had lived 

 on the island for generations, and looked after the 

 penguins and their eggs for the Government. He 

 showed me a pig he had killed. It was a monster ; 

 he said it weighed six hundred and eighty pounds. 

 He had also slain a turkey, which he declared turned 

 the scale at thirty-eight pounds. 



As we wandered over the island he took me to a point 

 where he said he once saw a "woman of the sea." 



" I was fishing here one day," he told me, " when 

 out of the sea came the ugliest woman I have ever seen. 

 It was a woman right enough. There was no mistaking 

 it, I know a woman when I see one. It was a 

 woman from the head to the waist, with the breasts 

 of a woman, but oh, what glassy eyes, and what a huge 

 and ugly mouth ! She gave me one look from her 

 fishy eyes, and that was enough for me ! I dropped 

 my fishing tackle and ran for dear Hfe." 



" A mermaid," I suggested. 



244 



