98 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb., 



Under these circumstances, the fitting out of a fleet of whalers 

 for the Antarctic, commanded by experienced ice navigators, and in 

 every way suited for meeting and surmounting the peculiar dangers 

 and difficulties attending such critical work, could not fail to be 

 regarded with the greatest interest by modern geographers and 

 naturalists, especially as it was announced that the surgeons of the 

 vessels had been chosen for their special acquirements as naturalists 

 and had been supplied by the leading scientific societies with 

 instruments and appliances suitable for the investigations which they 

 had consented to undertake. It was therefore hoped that the voyage, 

 notwithstanding its purely commercial object, would yield results of 

 very great interest from a scientific point of view also. 



The origin of the expedition was entirely due to the energy of 

 the brothers David and John Gray of Peterhead (n), themselves 

 descendants of a line of ice-kings. They, seeing that the Arctic 

 whale-fishery is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, have for the last 

 twenty years been urging an expedition to the Antarctic seas, chiefly 

 influenced by the reports of the numerous whales identical with, or of 

 a species closely resembling, the Northern Right Whale (Balcrna 

 mysticetus), which are recorded to have been met with in these seas by 

 Capt. Sir James C. Ross. Neither of the Grays was destined to take 

 a part in the venture. Capt. John Gray is dead, and David Gray 

 could not succeed in fitting out vessels from Peterhead. It therefore 

 fell to the Port of Dundee to make the trial trip ; and the " Active," 

 " Balaena," " Diana," and " Polar Star" were fitted out, and sailed 

 from that port about the 6th September, 1892. The Norwegians, 

 ever alert and our keenest competitors in the Arctic fisheries, also 

 sent out the " Jason " on the same venture. 



The narrative of this voyage (1) has recently been written by 

 Mr. W. G. Burn Murdoch, an artist who, at his own urgent request, 

 accompanied the " Balaena," by the kindness of Mr. Kennis, the 

 owner, and of Capt. Fairweather. Although rated in the ship's 

 books as assistant surgeon, he was really a passenger. Had Mr. 

 Murdoch's book been descriptive of any other portion of the world 

 save a virtually unknown region, it would have been looked upon in 

 the light of a very amusing production of no scientific value. But 

 any contribution to the knowledge of the Antarctic seas, however 

 slight, is possessed of interest, and the artistic way in which the 

 scenery of this wonderful region is depicted is really of value. Mr. 

 Murdoch is often flippant and too frequently subordinates fact to 

 fancy even beyond the limits of poetic license, but there are 

 occasional little bits of descriptive writing which are both truthful 

 and poetic. 



The " Balaena," a barque-rigged vessel of 417 tons gross burden, 

 and 65 horse-power auxiliary screw, commanded by Capt. Fair- 

 weather, an experienced and successful whaler, left Dundee on the 

 6th of September, 1892, with a crew of 45 all told. Her passage south 



