Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/136

 we found a pond of delicious water. We were provided with leather bags for the purpose of watering the ship. We filled these with water, and, carrying them on board, filled several of our tanks. This iceberg was three miles in circumference. Imagine an iceberg three times larger than Boston Common, afloat, and drifting in the water. Such was the fact, however, and some icebergs are much larger. This one had at some time been aground, and had turned over, for we found on it heaps of stones,  pebbles, gravel, and mud, where we landed. We saw several large boulders or rocks imbedded in it. What was exposed to view of one of them would probably  weigh eight or ten tons. We obtained many specimens of the stones and pebbles. They were of basalt and red sandstone. These specimens from the Antarctic Continent were in great demand during the remainder of our cruise. We had a jolly time while on this iceberg, sliding, snowballing one another, and playing with the penguins and seals. As we had not got our "shore legs" on we received many a fall on the ice, which, we found,  was very hard and flinty, and caused us to see a great  many stars. I never saw wild sea-animals so tame and innocent-looking as these seals. Three or four of us caught hold of an old sea-horse’s tail, and he dragged us  quite a distance. When we reached the edge of the berg we let go and he tumbled into the water. He soon came up again with two or three others, looked all about,  and seemed much surprised at not finding us in the  water with him. We captured several of these seals, called sea-lions, sea-elephants, or sea-tigers, and they  form part of our collection at the Smithsonian Institute,