Edward Nicholas Kendall

“ Deception Island presents a different appearance from the rest of the group. The warmth of the soil and the blackness of the cinders make it appear more like terra firma than' the other islands, and its rocks are also more denuded of their snowy mantle. ”

“ From them a small rock juts out, and bears on its summit a most ridiculously striking likeness to a cock, which seemed, with Outspread wings, to hail the arrival of another 'Chanticleer.'
The island is inhabited by penguins, from whose rookeries proceeded a most deafening din, saluting the ears of the passenger in the most discordant notes. Our principal amusement, during the intervals of relaxation from labour, was to watch their motions, for their attitudes were excessively ludicrous, and their curiosity unbounded ”

“ I should suppose, that in the early part of December, two such vessels as the Chanticleer might have been easily loaded with their eggs; but at this time the young were nearly fledged, and the noise, dirt, and stench proceeding from their abodes were almost insupportable.
Besides the penguins, we found sea-leopards, Port Egmont hens, pintados, and various kinds of petrels, who bred in the rocks. There was nothing in the shape of vegetation except a small kind of lichen, whose efforts are almost ineffectual to maintain its existence amongst the scanty soil afforded by the penguin' dung. ”

“ When to these discomforts is added, that the short allowance, to which we had been reduced, barely formed sufficient for a healthy man's breakfast, you may judge whether what we have accomplished has not been à la force. ”