Chap. X.J WHALES BLOWING. 219 



charge water, but only its breath ; this, however, in rushing up 

 into the air hot from the animal's body, has its "moisture con- 

 densed to form a sort of rain, and the colder the air, just as in 

 the case of our own breath, the more marked the result. 



When the spout is made with the blowhole clear above the 

 surface of the water, it appears like a sudden jet of steam from 

 a boiler. When effected, as it sometimes is, before the blow- 

 hole reaches the surface, a low fountain as from a street 

 fire-plug is formed, and when the hole is close to the surface 

 at the moment, a little water is sent up with the tall jet of 

 steam. The cloud blown up does not disappear at once, but 

 hangs a little while, and is often seen to drift a short distance 

 with the wind. 



The expiratory sound is very loud when heard close by, 

 and is a sort of deep bass snort, extremely loud, and some- 

 what prolonged ; it might even be compared to the sound 

 produced by the rushing of steam at high pressure from a large 

 pipe. 



Smaller Cetaceans, probably of a kind of Grampus (Orra), 

 were very common near the Circle ; these had a high dorsal 

 fin placed at about the middle of the length of their bodies. 

 Immediately behind the fin there was a large white saddle- 

 shaped patch, extending across the back, and they had further 

 a conspicuous white blotch on each side just behind the 

 head, and in front of the flippers. The white patches con- 

 trasted strongly with the dark general colour of the body. 

 These Grampuses swam about in small shoals with their high 

 dorsal fins projecting far out of the water, as those of sharks 

 do sometimes, and also those of Sword-fish. The Grampuses 

 seemed habitually to swim thus, and the group of pointed 

 sickle-shaped black objects moving through the water had a 

 curious appearance at a distance. I cannot identify this 

 Grampus with a described species. 



As soon as we neared the edge of the pack ice, a petrel 

 which we had not seen at the islands we had left became 

 common {Thalasscieca glacialoides), and as soon as we reached 

 the ice we fell in with the beautiful snow-white Petrel {Pago- 

 droma nivea), which is never to be found far from the antarctic 

 ice. The bird flies very much like the Whale Bird {P?-io/i) : 

 it settles on the water to feed ; it remains on the wing late at 

 night when the other birds have disappeared. I have seen 

 the birds flying about the ship as late as 1 1 o'clock at night, 

 when it was quite dusk. The bird was found by Ross breeding 

 on Cockburn Island in lat. 64° S. 



Besides these two petrels we saw when at the edge of the 

 pack, the Sooty albatross {Diomcdea fiiligiiiosa), the Giant 



