116 TASMANIA AND THE ANTAECTIC 
Victoria — hoisted the British Colours Gave the Boats Crew 
an allowance of Grog with three hearty cheers for Old 
England. 
The set phrase for taking possession is delightful where the 
only opposition could have come from the curious crowds of 
penguins, martial in looks but mild in behaviour, for : 
The Species of Penguins amphibious Little Creatures 
were so thick the Captn. Could not enumerate them. But the 
beach was Literally coverd. with them. 
At 12 oclock the Captain Come on Board we made all 
Sail Kunning by the Land to the Eastward Blowing very 
hard and Still Keeping out to Sea to avoid Danger. 
On the 13th we made Mount Sabrina [a poetic lapse for 
Mt. Sabine. Doubtless he had no more acquaintance with 
* Comus ' than with the learned and gallant Secretary of the 
Koyal Society, but at all events the shipping list gave him 
the name, for the Sabrina was one of Weddell's little boats 
when he made the previous record for ' farthest South '] 
here is a Phenomena. This splendid mountain Eising 
Gradually from the Sea Shore to the Enormous height of 
Sixteen thousand Eight hundred and ninety feet high. I 
Could compare it to nothing Else but the Speir of a church 
drawn out to a regular taper point. Protruding through the 
Clouds. But beyond this as far as the Eyes Could Carry the 
object Seemed more Interesting. 
My friend if i could only view and Study the Sublimety 
of nature — But Lo i had to pull the brails. 
The prose of life has a most unhappy way of obtruding itself, 
especially on board a sailing-ship in dangerous waters. But 
though his interrupted musings could never be wholly satisfied, 
he picked up scraps of knowledge as he went along and moreover 
added reflections of his own. 
This noble battery of Ice which fortifyd. the Land two 
hundred feet high. And floating islands in all directions this 
Strange Scenery was Eemarkably Striking and Grand. The 
bold masses of Ice that walld. in the Land, the romantic gulf 
of the mountains as they glitter in the Sim Eendered this 
Scene Quite Enchanting, this Mountain is most perpendicular 
