100 Southern Cross. 



Mcuf 9th. — Ole and I were on the ice to-day fishing and caught fifty- 

 seven fish. Twice Ole got two fish on the " pilk " at the same time, and 

 once even three fish. On two occasions Seals came up in the ice-holes 

 in which we were fishing, and at last they frightened the fish away from 

 us. Saw a Pagodroma nivea. 



May lOth. — To-day has been a very good day for my collection. Evans 

 and I went out this morning, and we were very fortunate, as we shot 

 twelve Ice Petrels, and we also collected a great number of Invertehrata. 

 Among others we had five different species of Jelly-fish. We, moreover, 

 found hundreds of those worms which I discovered on the 29th of last 

 month. We also found some Fish-fry, nearly as transparent as water ; 

 also a grey swimming thing, and some more small animals of species and 

 forms we have not seen before. It was certainly not a very pleasant work to 

 be dabbling with naked hands in the water with the temperature down to 

 — 5° Fahr. But when our fingers tingle the most and are stifi" and numbed 

 from the cold, we have this to comfort us, that we are suffering for the 

 cause of science, and that many zoologists are waiting for the results we 

 shall bring back and will thank us accordingly. 



May 15th. — These last few days we have only now and then seen a 

 solitary Seal and two or three birds of those species we have been 

 accustomed to see. To-day also some Seals and an Ice Petrel have been 

 seen. In the forenoon I saw a troop of Seals, about a dozen, in the sea, 

 presumably Leptonychotes. This evening, just as I was going to turn in, 

 the three Englishmen came in and told me that they had seen and heard 

 a "Whistling" Seal out by the point, but they had not killed it, neither had 

 they ascertained to which species it belonged. I hurried into my clothes 

 again and in company with Fougner, Kolbein, and Evans as a guide, I set 

 off armed with a rifle and a lantern. Evans could not find the place 

 where the Seal was lying, and we searched a long time in vain, but 

 at last one of the dogs began to bark a short distance off, and by 

 going up to the dog we at last found the Seal. The light from 

 the lantern made him lie still and stare without making any sign of 

 moving away. I poked him on the nose with the barrel of my rifle, and 

 then he gave vent to the before-mentioned "whistling" sound and also a 

 sharp smacking noise, which seemed to come from the bottom of his chest. 

 The whistling was quite shrill and clear, like the note of a canary-bird. 

 The Seal was a young female of Leptonychotes iveddelli, the smallest we have 

 seen as yet. She M^as only five feet long ; the skin and cranium we took 

 for the collection. 



June 8th. — The Finns were far away on the ice to-day to look for some 

 dogs. They found five Seals lying by a hole in the ice. As they had 

 nothing with tliem wherewith to kill the animals, they stopped up the 

 hole, so that we can find the Seals to-morrow. No birds of any kind 

 seen. 



June 9th. — We did not find the Seals by the hole the Finns had 

 stopped up, but, on following up their track, we found that they had 

 moved away to an iceberg about one kilometer away, where we discovered 

 that they had gone into a narrow water-lane which ran round the iceberg. 

 Near by we found on the ice a young Leptonycliotes, half killed by our 

 four-legged bandits. In the lane round the berg there were a number 

 of Seals, and what interested me most was the fact that there were a large 



