NIMROD'S VOYAGE 



hut, which was very warm and comfortable and scrupu- 

 lously clean. It consisted of two rooms, both of which 

 had fires ; one of them was used as a work-room and store, 

 the other as a sleeping-place. I learnt, as I sat in front of 

 a comfortable little fire, that McKibbon was a native of 

 Carrick-on- Shannon, and had been in the navy for twenty 

 years; he was a typical sailor, clean-shaven, and despite 

 of his fifty years of active Hfe was as keen and alert as a 

 boy. ' I never had an illness in my life,' he said when I 

 asked him what would happen to him if he fell ill. He 

 was nearly as surprised to see us as we were to see him. 

 * I thought at first it was the New Zealand Government 

 light-house tender; then when you came closer I saw you 

 were a wooden vessel and put you down as a surveying 

 ship.' When he heard that we had just returned from the 

 Antarctic he told us that he had been in the Arctic in the 

 paddle frigate Valorus, which vessel took up stores for 

 the expedition under Nares and Markham. 



" We spent four days at Macquarie Island, and 

 obtained a good collection of specimens. We left the 

 island on May 30, and as soon as we got from under its 

 lee encountered a fresh westerly gale with high seas. 

 Running before this we passed over the charted position 

 of Emerald Island at 8 p.m. on the 31st. It was a clear 

 night, three days from full moon, and if there had been 

 even low land in the \dcinity we should have seen it. I 

 decided to stand on, as it was blowing hard, and a high 

 westerly sea made soundings impracticable. On June 9 

 we arrived in the vicinity of the position assigned to the 

 Nimrod Islands, and at 1.15 a.m., in fine clear weather, 

 passed over this spot with nothing in sight. The weather 

 here again was much against us, a very high sea, with 

 fresh westerly wind and squally, and the barometer at 

 28.20. After steaming east sixteen miles from the posi- 



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