MX-RPHY : PEXOnXS OF SOUTH GEORGIA. IIJ 
at the a]>])roach of the barking dog they iiivariabl.v resjionded not l)y 
taking to the water, where the>- would have been rid immediately of the 
tormentor, but b>' deliberately running up the beach, heading for the 
neare,st bank or hillside. Even after the dog had seized a penguin by it.s 
bi-istly tail and had swung it round and round merely for the fun of 
teasing, the poor dazed victim would still persist in .scampering away from 
the water. I my.self often found that the surest wax to keep penguins 
ashore was to try to drive them into the .sea. At Cumberland Bay, 
however, where se\-eral hundred whalemen ha\-e dwelt for a number of 
years, some of the penguins ha\-e adapted themselves to the new con- 
ditions, and I saw birds in the neighborhood of the whaling station take 
promptly to the water when they were chased.* Klutschak also cites an 
instance in which the johnny jjenguins had ]irofited \-er\- quickly by 
bitter ex])erience. He writes : 
In spite of their ingenuousness, the penguins have also much cunning as the 
following episode will demonstrate. These birds usually lay their eggs among patches 
of sparse grass at an elevation of several hundred feet above the sea. Our Portuguese 
sailors, tiring of the ship's fare, climbed a hill one evening, drove away the penguins, 
and gathered up all the eggs that they could find. At a later date they repeated 
the raid, but, trying it a third time, they found neither eggs nor birds. Then for 
several days no penguin was seen. But one morning our attention was called to some 
white specks moving down the abrupt slope of a mountain toward the sea. The 
specks proved to be our penguins descending for their bath. After several hours 
thev climbed up again to their new village where they had found security for them- 
selves and their eggs, for our Cape Verders. as much as they would have liked another 
feast, were too lazy to attempt the difficidt ascent. (Translation ). 
The antiquity of the hill-climbing instinct among the johnny penguins 
of South Georgia is attested b\- a strange and romantic jihenomenon, 
namely that the jienguins go back to the heights to die. In a hollow at 
the summit of the coast range south of the Bay of Isles lies a clear lake 
on a bed of ice-cracked .stones. This transparent pool, formed entirely of 
snow-water, with a maximum dei)th of three or four meters, is a jienguin 
graveyard. In January, lyi.i, I found its bottom thickl\' strewn with 
the bodies of ]:)enguins which had outlived the perils of the sea and had 
apparently accomplished the rare feat among wild animals of dying a 
natural death. They lay by scores all over the .ston>- bed of the pool, 
mo.stly on their backs with ]nnions outstretched, their brea.sts reflecting 
gleams of white from the dee]ier water. Safe from .sea leopards in 
the ocean and from skuas ashore, they took their last rest. For months. 
