It was a lovely morning, the loveliest that the shipwrecked people had
seen since their landing on Kerguelen Land, when the little party
started away from Penguin Castle, bidding adieu to the spot which for so
many long months had given them a shelter and a home.
The sun was shining out brightly, the sky without a cloud, and the air
felt quite warm, although with a freshness in it that just gave zest to
movement; while the atmosphere had that peculiar opalescent translucency
about it and an almost imperceptible colouring--in the faintest tints of
light mauve and amber, with a shade of tender apple-green--which is
rarely seen in more northern latitudes, excepting in those regions that
are well within the borders of the Arctic circle.
Out in the bay opposite the creek, the water was as smooth as glass,
undisturbed by the slightest breath of wind so as to cause a ripple; and
numbers of baby puffins and young penguins, their spruce little downy
bodies clad in bright new coats of silky feathers, were scattered in
groups over the mirror-like expanse, diving and coming up again in a
moment in the centre of a series of expanding circles that gradually
grew wider and wider in diameter, as when a stone is flung into a still
pond, only to disappear the next minute. Others were flitting along
over the surface with the pinions of their little wings just dipped in
the water, so that they flicked it up, in the short flights they took
now and then in play and mimic pursuit of each other, like as rowing men
do when they "feather" their oars too soon in lumpy water. Sometimes,
the generally restless birdlets would rest tranquilly for a brief while
on the bosom of the sea, chattering away like so many aquatic magpies in
miniature mottled flocks; but this was only for a very short spell.
To the right of the creek, rising abruptly out of the sea, the black
basaltic cliffs which formed such a bold headland to the bay stretched
far out to where the extreme point of Cape Saint Louis could be seen,
embracing within the compass of its arm the reef on which the _Nancy
Bell_ had been lost; and to the left, beyond the ridge at the back of
the castaways' dwelling, the higher ranges of the inland mountains,
which seemed to run down to the southwards and eastwards as far as the
eye could reach, stood up--towering in the distance above the hills
immediately near in the foreground and lifting their snow-clad summits
into the blue vault of the heavens.
The "travelling caravan," as Mr Lathrope had styled the jolly-boat when
he saw it first mounted on its broad-flanged, awkward-looking carriage,
had been packed the night before with all the impedimenta of the
pilgrims. Their few "goods and chattels and household effects" were
stowed in and about below the thwarts, with the canvas bags containing
the dried birds and Kerguelen cabbage which formed their stock of
provisions ranged round the gunwales and crammed in anywhere; while a
special place was kept clear and reserved in the stern-sheets for the
accommodation of poor Captain Dinks, who was deposited here in his cot.
Pussy, who had been so happily saved from the wreck at the last moment
and had since done such good service in demolishing the mice which
infested the house, was placed alongside of the captain to keep him
company, and he had also in charge a tame, or rather an educated
penguin, that Master Maurice Negus had displayed considerable ability in
training and which Mr Meldrum had allowed to be taken along with the
other things as a reward for the "imp's" services of late in assisting
at the preparations of the expedition.
For some days prior to this, Mr Meldrum had been very busy taking short
excursions in various directions, but all tending to the same point of
the compass. He was endeavouring to find out which route would be the
most practicable for reaching the eastern seaboard; and, after
collecting all his observations into one harmonised whole and
deliberating over the matter with Mr Lathrope and the first-mate, who
had severally accompanied him in his various prospecting tours, the
final course of the party was at length agreed on.
The bright morning appeared to all as an augury of success; so it was
with light hearts that they set out.
They abandoned Penguin Castle in all its entirety, Mr Meldrum saying
that possibly they might have to seek its shelter again; but, if happily
there should arise no occasion for that eventuality, the building might
still be of service to other shipwrecked men in a like extremity to
themselves. Thus it came to pass that the place was left "all
standing," with rooms, furniture--such as it was--Snowball's copper and
the cooking range all intact. Even the flagstaff with Kate's ensign at
the peak was left hoisted, as if to show, that if deserted now, the spot
had once been inhabited!
They were thirty-two souls in all now, reckoning the steward and the
other four men of the mutineers who had come back in the longboat--which
had to be broken up, by the way, after all, to form the jolly-boat's
carriage; and it was just "six bells in the forenoon watch" when they
started, a team of the sailors, tethered in traces like a pack of
Esquimaux dogs, hauling away at the boat-carriage and running it along
merrily with a chorus of "cheerily men, cheerily ho!" The others
tramped behind the queer vehicular conveyance, without respect of
persons; only poor Captain Dinks being allowed a seat in the boat, while
it travelled on land, and that only by reason of his helplessness and
inability to move without assistance. When they had to take to the
water, of course, the jolly-boat would have to carry more passengers.
On the way, sometimes, they had serious difficulties to encounter, for
the ground in many places was moist and spongy, causing the feet of the
men hauling to sink deeply into the soil as they tugged at the towing-
rope of the jolly-boat's carriage; but, as frequently Mr Meldrum
remarked, to rouse the seamen's energies, "difficulties were only made
for brave men to conquer," so at it they went with a will which soon
overcame the dead weight of the load they had to drag behind them--a
fresh towing team relieving the first at the expiration of every half
hour, so as not to weary the men out by a too prolonged strain at such
unusual exertion.
Bye and bye, they arrived at the end of their first "portage," the
shores of the little lake which Mr Meldrum had noticed trending in an
eastward direction. This water would now considerably aid their passage
across the isthmus by allowing the jolly-boat to take to its native
element, on whose bosom it would be borne some miles on the onward way.
Here a halt was called and a short luncheon taken, after which the
jolly-boat was safely launched on the water by backing it down on its
carriage. This plan was easy as well as expeditious; for, as soon as
the boat had reached its proper point of immersion, it floated off the
wheels.
The ladies then got into the stern-sheets, alongside of the captain,
accompanied by Mr Meldrum, while four of the seamen took their places
on the thwarts in order to row them across--the remainder of the party
stopping where they were, along with a portion of the packages that had
been removed from the boat so as to make room for Mrs Major Negus and
the others who went with her. The carriage belonging to the boat was
also left behind until the latter should have deposited its first cargo
on the other side of the lake and return to fetch a fresh load.
Three trips were taken before the whole party were thus transported over
the lake, the boat's carriage being then towed over at the last
crossing.
It would be needless repetition to recount in detail all the different
portages of the jolly-boat over the strips of land which lay between the
chain of lakes that were spread over the line of their route; or, to
tell the number of the trips by water that had to be made.
There were many unloadings of the little craft, and many packings-up
again.
Many weary miles the poor unaccustomed pedestrians had to tramp,
sometimes up-hill, sometimes down dale, through marshy lands and over
stony boulders that blistered their feet; and all the while they had to
drag after them that terrible Frankenstein-like monster, the jolly-boat
mounted on its carriage, which seemed to the worn-out men sometimes a
species of Juggernaut car, crushing out their spirits and sapping their
every energy.
Suffice it to say, that, at the end of a fortnight's time, they at
length reached a magnificent stretch of blue water, which Mr Meldrum
said was Hillsborough Bay, on the eastern side of Kerguelen Land.
Hurrah--they had crossed the isthmus, and arrived so far towards the end
of their destination!
As they toiled over this neck of land which united the two principal
peninsulas into which the island was divided, they could mark how, as
had been noticed along the coast, the country was composed of a series
of terraced hills, rising above a chain of lakes and lagoons that
indented it deeply on either side and forming an endless succession of
deep fords and harbours, the hills being almost invariably covered, from
their crests down to a certain altitude, with perpetual snow. Below
this line, their sides were clothed with green verdure, composed chiefly
of a species of azorella and a rough spinated grass; while, the
strangest feature of all was, that not a single tree, or plant
approaching to the dimensions of a shrub, could be seen on any portion
of the island!
The most charming characteristic of the scenery noticed, was the
profusion of cataracts, cascades, and waterfalls, which leaped and
sparkled from terrace to terrace of the basaltic net-work of peaks and
ridges that ran here, there, and everywhere across the isthmus,
enclosing the valleys and scarping the sea--the splashing of these
natural fountains making soft music everywhere as the water gurgled down
into tiny rivulets and brooks below, which stole their way along banks
bordered by chickweed and liverwort into the lakes, and from the lakes
into the ocean, only to be sucked up again by the clouds and deposited
on the hills in the form of rain, forming the cascades and cataracts
anew; and so on, _da capo_.