Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/138

 herdics in those days, so they sent me home in a cab. I quit the army the next day.

These birds, the penguins, keep excellent time with their file leader. It was very amusing to see them walk, they were so very awkward. If we annoyed them, they squawked furiously, flapped their wings, and showed  fight. They would nip and bite so severely that even our thick clothing was poor protection from their attacks. On our return to the boat we captured several of them, the old king-penguin and a number of his followers, and,  tying their legs, put them in the boat. When about halfway to the ship, they set up such a squalling and cackling that their comrades swimming about in the water would leap into our boat and sometimes completely over  it, knocking our hats off, striking our heads and faces,  and nipping us at every turn. They came in such numbers as to very nearly swamp our boat, and, to make the matter worse, the king and two or three others escaped,  and then how they did lacerate us with their nippers! Just then, three big sea-lions came up alongside the boat and looked in. One of them boldly rested his head on the gunwale. I never saw such innocence pictured in a face as was in his. We expected that he would leap into the boat, or, by his weight on the gunwale, would  swamp us, and thus give us all a chance to swim to the  ship. Suddenly the old king-penguin, which we had again secured, made a desperate effort and regained his  liberty, and, followed by two others, escaped from the  boat. This seemed to pacify their comrades at large, and also the seals, for they all disappeared under water. A few strokes of our oars brought us alongside the ship.