8o SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
Penguins were thought disagreeable, but they were fresh 
and that made them go down. However, the geese were 
a rare treat and as a little Madeira wine was left, “ the 
only article of our provisions that was mended by keep- 
ing/’ Cook remarked “ our friends in England did not, 
perhaps, celebrate Christmas more cheerfully than we 
did.” 
The few days’ rest after the dull months of monot- 
Cook's Chart of the Isle of Georgia. 
(From Cook’s “Second Voyage”) 
onous hardship did good to all hands. The captain 
looked back with immense satisfaction to his proof that 
no vast temperate continent lay in the South Pacific, and 
he looked forward to yet another southward cruise before 
turning the bows of his weather-beaten ship homeward. 
Cape Horn was doubled on December 29th, and a 
