THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



Some bolder dogs attacked the penguin in front, waiting 

 for chance to bite at the neck. One snap finished the 

 fight, the dogs usually leaving the disabled bird to chase 

 a fresh one. 



After learning that penguin hunting was a punishable 

 offence the dogs became very cunning. They slipped 

 away on their hunting expeditions, without attracting 

 attention, and the first intimation we had of it was the 

 distant barking as they surrounded some poor bird. 

 Though they could have but little experience of the effect 

 of shooting they stood in wholesome terror of a gun. 

 Daisy and Gwen especially knew that a gun could hurt at 

 a distance, and that flight was useless, so they slunk home 

 when a shot was fired, keeping cover as far as possible, 

 and hid below the house. 



Daisy was the most inveterate hunter, and regularly 

 took her children away to teach them to become self-sup- 

 porting. At last her propensity led her, there is no 

 reason to doubt, to a painful death. She took her whole 

 family once out hunting on the pack-ice. The pack was 

 blown out and the dogs were given up for lost. Some 

 days later they all came back, having evidently had a 

 trying experience, their faces matted with blood and sea 

 salt. Emboldened perhaps by this escape, Daisy again 

 went hunting on the pack, taking Roland with her, and 

 again the pack went out to sea. Roland returned, but 

 Daisy never did. 



When taken for a walk through the rookery, the dogs 

 bore themselves with a most virtuous air, looking with in- 

 difference at the penguins as if they had no idea what they 

 were good for. When detected penguin-worrying, old 

 Scamp made for his kennel, and sat there pretending he 

 had never been away, looking very innocent, overlooking 

 the fact that he was dripping with blood. 



