Extracts from Diary of Nicolai Hanson. 87 



Three of the men who had accompanied me came and assisted me to skin 

 them and drag the skins on boai'd. AVe had a tough job to get the 

 heavy skins on the ship, as the ice was full of water-lanes and hummocks, 

 so that we had more than double the distance to traverse before we 

 reached the ship. On the way back tg the vessel I shot three small 

 Petrels and an Ice Peti-el. The Seals were of the common white species, 

 and their stomachs were quite empty. They were a male and two female 

 Seals, large, full-grown animals. 



January IQtli. — Killed two young female Seals to-day. Stomachs 

 quite empty. One was of a new species, which I have not seen before. 

 Saw a Mutton-bird. The Brown-backed Petrel, which was so common in 

 the outer edge of the ice, I have not seen since the 6th of this month. 



January lltli. — To-day I shot two Silver Petrels, one Cape Pigeon, 

 one Ice Petrel, and one 0. oceanicus. 



January I2th. — While we were lying fast to-day in the ice, I went out 

 shooting and bagged one Emperor Penguin, eleven Silver Petrels, six 

 Ice Petrels, four Cape Pigeons, and three 0. oceanicus. 



Jaunary 13th. — One of the crew shot two Penguins on a floe : other- 

 wise only the usual birds were seen. No Seals about. Took two good 

 casts with the large Plankton-net this evening. Saw a fish about six 

 inches long. 



January lith. — I had just turned into my bunk this morning when 

 Borchgrevink came to fetch a rifle and cartridges to shoot a Seal. I went 

 on deck with him, as I wanted the skin for the collection. When the ship 

 had approached the Seal to within fifty yards, Borchgrevink fired five 

 shots at him, but only two hit him, one in the hind-quarters, the other in 

 the neck. Two of the crew went away to bring him on board, but, as he 

 still moved, they dared not lay hold of him, so I went to their assistance 

 and killed him. While we skinned the Seal on the floe, the ice slackened, 

 and we had to be fetched back by a boat. I went to bed again and slept 

 till noon, when Lieut. Colbeck came and called me, and told me that he 

 had killed a Seal of the same kind as the one I got on the 10th inst. It 

 was a fine specimen, and I preserved the skin and the cranium for the 

 collection. 



January IQtJi. — To-day at noon I killed a Seal of the same kind as the 

 one Colbeck killed two days ago. The whole pack of dogs were with me 

 and they ate the flesh of the Seal as fast as I skinned the animal. It 

 was like working in the midst of a pack of wolves. The skin and 

 cranium went into the collection. It was a fine specimen of a female 

 Seal. 



January I8th. — As to-day we moved into tolerably clear water I saw 

 some birds, more in fact than I have seen for many days past, and among 

 them was one of the Brown-backed Petrel, which was so common on the 

 outer edge of the pack. Just as we were sitting down to supper, it was 

 reported : " A large Penguin on the starboard bow ! " I ran up, armed 

 with a gun and a seal-pick; but we were still some distance from the 

 bird, which could be seen on a large ice-floe on which thei-e was a 

 hummock. Under the lee of this hummock, sheltered from the wind, the 

 big bird sat crouching. As we approached it, the colour of its plumage 

 became more and more strange in appearance, and I even thought that 

 we had met with a bird of an unknown species. Suddenly we discovered 



