EDITORIAL NOTE. 



ON previous voyages I had learnt the value of keeping immediate records in ;i 

 systematic manner of everything of scientific value, so that memory need never lie 

 trusted to, even for the matter of a day, and so that things observed could be referred 

 to at any time in black and white. To Mr DAVID W. WILTON I handed over the 

 keeping of the Zoological Log, and I cannot praise too highly the systematic and con- 

 scientious manner in which he gathered us all together every evening and extracted 

 from us in brief everything we had seen during the day of zoological interest. While, 

 therefore, the log is his excellent work, it is the summing up of everything that was 

 noted during every day. I may mention that the crew became keen and accurate 

 observers and careful collectors, and to them are due many most valuable records. 

 Among all the ship's company there was, perhaps, no better observer than our 

 second officer, the late Mr ROBERT DAVIDSON. He would distinguish a new bird on 

 the wing at long distance before anybody on board. 



From the start of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to its finish the 

 open-air observations of the naturalists on board were recorded daily in this log. 

 The log makes no pretensions to being anything more than a field note-book of the 

 natural history of the voyage. It was, naturally, impossible to identify all birds 

 seen on the wing, and all marine animals passed by when the ship was making passages 

 from one point to another. In consequence, especially during the passage of the 

 "Scotia" through the tropics, the records on many days are slight; and if the entries 

 occasionally have little scientific value, they can at least claim to be a faithful record of 

 life observed. During the "Scotia's" cruises in antarctic seas, and more particularly 

 during her wintering in Scotia Bay, South Orkneys, the daily entries will be found to 

 be fuller and more precise, and it is from those regions that the observations will have 

 most value. Everyone on board was conversant with the names of the antarctic birds 

 and seals ; the attention of all the naturalists was concentrated on the work ; and since 

 the "Scotia" was then iti her special field of operations, there was seldom, if ever, any 

 attempt made at quick passages. The log, therefore, expanded from a few cursory 

 observations into a detailed naturalists' diary. 



The log has been prepared for publication with no material alterations ; the names 

 of the animals referred to have been added in footnotes wherever possible and desirable, 



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