FIRST LANDING AT CAPE RO YDS 



ice-foot was sufficient to show us that Cape Royds would 

 make an excellent place on which to land our stores. We 

 therefore shoved off in the boat again, and, skirting 

 along the ice-foot to the south, sounded the bay, and 

 found that the water deepened from two fathoms close 

 in shore to about twenty fathoms four hundred yards 

 further south. After completing these soundings we 

 pulled out towards the ship, which had been coming in 

 very slowly. We were pulling along at a good rate when 

 suddenly a heavy body shot out of the water, struck the 

 seaman who was pulling stroke, and dropped with a thud 

 into the bottom of the boat. The arrival was an Adelie 

 penguin. It was hard to say who was the most aston- 

 ished — the penguin, at the result of its leap on to what 

 it had doubtless thought was a rock, or we, who so sud- 

 denly took on board this curious passenger. The sailors 

 in the boat looked upon this incident as an omen of good 

 luck. There is a tradition amongst seamen that the 

 souls of old sailors, after death, occupy the bodies of 

 penguins, as well as of albatrosses; this idea, however, 

 does not prevent the mariners from making a hearty meal 

 off the breasts of the former when opportunity offers. 

 We arrived on board at 9 p.m., and by 10 p.m. on Febru- 

 ary 3 the Nimrod was moored to the bay ice, ready to land 

 the stores. 



Immediately after securing the ship I went ashore, 

 accompanied by the Professor, England, and Dunlop, 

 to choose a place for building the hut. We passed the 

 penguins, which were marching solemnly to and fro, and 

 on reaching the level land, made for a huge boulder of 

 kenyte, the most conspicuous mark in the locality. I 

 thought that we might build the hut under the lee of this 

 boulder, sheltered from the south-east wind, but the 

 situation had its drawbacks, as it would have entailed a 

 large amount of levelling before the foundation of the 



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