Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/228

May 6.—About three times a week we have to bring up salt water ice for the hoosh, as we have run out of salt. This morning Priestley and I went down for sea ice, and as usual were walking round Look-out Point to see if any seals were up, when coming across the sea ice in Arrival Bay we saw figures. We had often talked of the possibility of the ship being caught in Wood Bay and relieving us from that direction.

We both got rather a thrill on sighting them, though they were so close to the open water as to make it improbable that they should be anything but penguins. Still I ran back to the hut for my glasses, as through the low drift they seemed tall enough to be men.

Abbott followed me down with an ice-axe, since, if they were not men, they were food. They turned out to be four Emperor penguins heading into Arrival Bay, so we jumped the tide crack, all getting wet, and made off to intercept them. We came up with them after a long chase, and bagged the lot, Levick coming up just too late for the kill. They were in fine condition, and it was all we could do to carry them back to the hut, each taking a bird. There is no doubt our low diet is making us rather weak. We had a full hoosh and an extra biscuit in honour of the occasion.

May 7.—A blizzard with heavy drift has been blowing all day, so it was a good job we got the penguins. We have got the roof on the shaft now, but in these blizzards the entrance is buried in snow, and we have a job to keep the shaft clear. Priestley has found his last year's journal, and reads some to us every evening.