While horror at the bare contemplation of an extremity so repulsive
occupied the thoughts of all, the horizon was observed to be suddenly
obscured, and presently clouds of penguin alighted on the island. The
low grounds were actually covered; and before the evening was dark, the
sand could not be seen for the number of eggs, which, like a sheet of
snow, lay on the surface of the earth. The penguins continued on the
island four or five days, when, as if by signal, the whole took their
flight, and were never seen again. A few were killed, but the flesh was
so extremely rank and nauseous that it could not be eaten. The eggs
were collected and dressed in all manner of ways, and supplied abundance
of food for upwards of three weeks. At the expiration of that period,
famine once more seemed inevitable; the third morning began to dawn upon
the unfortunate company after their stock of eggs were exhausted; they
had now been without food for more than forty hours, and were fainting
and dejected; when, as though this desolate rock were really a land of
miracles, a man came running up to the encampment with the unexpected
and joyful tidings that "millions of sea-cows had come on shore.
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