79 



III. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIVATE DIARY 



OF THE LATE 



NICOLAI HANSON.' 



\_PuhUshed hy permission of Mrs. Nicolai Banson, and translated from the 

 Norivegian hy his father, Mr. Anton Hanson, of Christiansund.'] 



September 15th, 1898. — In the forenoon I observed a shoal of fish, 

 apparently Bonitoes, and a few Flying-fish. A number of Petrels 

 (Puffinus) followed the fish, among them a Frigate-bird. In the afternoon 

 some small whales, like Bottle-noses, approached the ship. I fired two 

 shots with explosive shells at two of them, but killed none, though one 

 was hit pretty hard. 



October 5th. — [Nicolai had been dangerously ill from September 15th 

 until to-day.— A. H.] Have seen my first Albatros. It is strange how 

 very few birds there are here ; for the last few days I have only seen 

 some little Petrels. Yesterday I saw five birds, like Terns, which were 

 fishing a short distance away from us. 



' This excellent young naturalist and collector was appointed to the post of 

 Zoologist on the ' Southern Cross,' on the recommendation of Professor Robert 

 Collett, of Christiania University. A better appointment could not have been made. 

 As to the esteem in which Hanson was held, nothing need be added to the tribute 

 paid to his memory by Mr. Beruacchi in his book ' To the South Polar Regions ' 

 (pp. 184 -190), and this appreciation of the dead naturalist has been personally con- 

 firmed to me by his colleagues of the scientific staff, Dr. Klovstad, Lieut. Colbeck, 

 Mr. Hugh Evans, and Mr. Anton Fougner. 



His notebooks were handed to the Commander of the Expedition by the dying 

 naturalist (Bernacchi, t.c. p. 185) on the 14th of October, 1899. Mr. Borchgrevink 

 has published some observations from one of these books in his " Appendix " 

 (pp. 320-324), and he has handed to me one other book, which contains a mere list 

 of the Procellariidae collected during the voyage out, and the details are also to be 

 found on the labels attached to the specimens themselves. 



Knowing, however, from personal experience, and from the verbal testimony of 

 his colleagues, that Mr. Hanson was in the habit of making careful notes on every 

 natural history fact that came under his observation, I wrote to Mrs. Nicolai 

 Hanson, to ask whether she had in her possession any private letters from her late 

 husband, which contained natural history notes. In return she kindly placed her 

 husband's private diary at my disposal, and the notes which Nicolai Hanson wrote 

 for his wife's information are here reproduced, having been translated by his father, 

 Mr. Anton Hanson, of Christiansund. I think that, in the absence of the official 

 note-books, Zoologists throughout the world will rejoice that, by means of these 

 private records, written without any idea of their subsequent publication, and 

 merely for the amusement and instruction of his young wife, some details of the 

 strenuous work done by Mr. Hanson during the expedition of the ' Southern Cross ' 

 have been rescued from oblivion. — R. B. S. 



