Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/183

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supper lay down; the stony beach was their bed, and their covering the canopy of heaven.

At three o'clock in the morning the tide permitted them to take the sportsmen from their barren island; after which they immediately sailed with a fair wind, accompanied with showers of rain, to the cove where they had secured the other boat. Here they found an immense number of petrels of the bluish species, common over the whole southern ocean, some being on the wing, and others in the woods, in holes under ground formed between the roots of trees and in the crevices of rocks, in places not easily accessible, where they probably had their nests and young. In day time, not one of them was to be seen there, the old ones then being probably out at sea in quest of food. They now saw them going out for that purpose, and two days ago they had been observed at the Seal Islands, returning in the evening in order to feed their young with the food which they had collected. They now heard a great variety of confused sounds coming from the sides of the hill, some very acute, others like the croaking of frogs, which were made by these petrels. At other times we have found innumerable holes on the top of one of the Seal Islands, and heard the young petrels making a noise in them; but as the holes communicated with each other it was impossible to come at one of them. We had