Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/278

244 Bird and Lieutenant Murdo in constructing a pier, of the numerous heavy masses of loose stones that lay about convenient for the purpose, at which our boats could land at any time of tide, and thus materially facilitate the disembarkation and re-embarkation of the ship's stores and provisions, as it was necessary to take every thing out of them previous to laying them on the ground for examination and repair; and also in erecting a spacious storehouse, convenient to the pier, capable of containing the entire contents of one ship, completely protected from the inclement weather we had reason to expect, by a close thick thatch of Tussock grass.

Whilst these preliminary measures were being proceeded with, Lieutenant Robinson arrived in the Arrow towards the end of April; and as the period of her stay was limited, a party was immediately sent off to Port St. Salvador, whose deeply indented shores he recommended as best adapted for a hunting station. One of the ship's boats was carried over the narrow neck of land that separates the westernmost part of Port Louis from Port St. Salvador, and in it the party embarked, accompanied by some of the Arrow's best sportsmen and the dogs, intending to pitch their tents on the western shores of the Port.

The party appeared to have lost no time; for in two or three days we received the substantial assurance of its success and exertion, in a supply of twelve hundred weight of beef; and I am glad