It has the slaughter-house
at one end and the graveyard at the other. The chief distraction is to
walk from the slaughter-house to the graveyard. For a change one may
walk from the graveyard to the slaughter-house. Ellaline Terriss was
born at Port Stanley--a fact not forgotten by the residents, but she
has not lived there much since. I could not content myself to wait for
six or seven weeks, knowing that six hundred miles away my comrades
were in dire need. I asked the Chilian Government to send the
'Yelcho', the steamer that had towed us before, to take the schooner
across to Punta Arenas, and they consented promptly, as they had done
to every other request of mine. So in a north-west gale we went
across, narrowly escaping disaster on the way, and reached Punta Arenas
on August 14.
There was no suitable ship to be obtained. The weather was showing
some signs of improvement, and I begged the Chilian Government to let
me have the 'Yelcho' for a last attempt to reach the island. She was a
small steel-built steamer, quite unsuitable for work in the pack, but I
promised that I would not touch the ice. The Government was willing to
give me another chance, and on August 25 I started south on the fourth
attempt at relief. This time Providence favoured us. The little
steamer made a quick run down in comparatively fine weather, and I
found as we neared Elephant Island that the ice was open.
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