7 o WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



efforts of Meares on the rocking sledge ; our honoured com- 

 mander roughly upset as he tried to stop the procession, and 

 Gran flapping along on his ski to be in at the death. 



On the 1 8th we reached some fairly open water. I went 

 on iceberg duty at 8 p.m. as usual. There was nothing to 

 report until nine, when we approached thicker pack. We had 

 been moving at what seemed lightning speed after our week's 

 wait. Gran and I were watching a floe bumped by the ship. 

 The nearer half sank under the blow, and then rose as we 

 passed. In the middle of the floe was something kicking 

 violently. We yelled out, " Fish oh ! " and as we have not 

 been able to catch any in Antarctica so far, this small specimen, 

 less than a foot long, roused much excitement. It was of 

 slaty-blue colour, and had been caught by the uprising floe. 

 Captain Scott ordered the ship to be sent astern, and the whole 

 expedition returned about a hundred yards to catch that fish. 

 So did two snowy petrels and a skua gull. Then might have 

 been seen eminent explorers, scientists, and sailor-men yelling 

 themselves hoarse to scare away the birds of prey ! We 

 backed on to the floe, and as I was about the best situated, 1 

 jumped down to the ice and secured the fish, just as the birds 

 were deciding that the unseemly clamour could not hurt them. 

 A leather bucket on a line received the fish, but unfortunately 

 the floe started drifting away, and soon was held only by my 

 pull on the bucket-line. It was rather a comical situation, 

 for if I let go the fish would probably get adrift, and if they 

 let go I should get adrift ! However, I had to let the bucket 

 go, and luckily — though it filled with water — the fish did not 

 have time to jump out. Then a heavy rope drew the floe 

 to the ship's side across some twenty feet of water — no easy 

 job, since the floe was twenty-five feet wide, and there was 

 nothing to which the rope could be tied. The fish turned 

 out to be a blenny, allied to the climbing perch of the Queens- 

 land coast. Whether it is new or not is a question still to be 

 decided. 



We passed some very interesting icebergs during the next 

 few days (i8-20th). I remember especially one long berg 

 on the eastern horizon, on which the setting sun was shining. 

 It must have been a tremendous length, and looked like a 

 golden scimitar flung across a dead white plain. Even our 

 helmsman noticed it, and said, " A white-back, sorr ; it 



