i6o THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept. 



for assistance to haul in the line. In this way our larder was 

 kept well supplied, whilst a few obtained feasts of the fish 

 which we had long ceased to catch by our own efforts. 



There was great excitement one day when one of the men 

 went to this hole in the ice and, seeing a disturbance in the 

 water, plunged the harpoon down. Evidently striking some- 

 thing, he rushed back to the ship to say that he had hit a big 

 fish. There was a general stampede for the hole, and the 

 harpoon line was soon being hauled in, in spite of the very 

 lively something at the other end ; but when at last this some- 

 thing was landed on the floe it was found to be nothing more 

 unusual than a large seal, and naturally there was a chorus of 

 jeers at the expense of the man who had claimed to have 

 struck a big fish. In spite of ridicule, however, this individual 

 stuck to his story that there had been a fish, and soon after it 

 was proved that he had been quite accurate, for, searching 

 amongst the brash ice in the hole, Skelton suddenly raised a 

 shout, and in a moment or two produced the headless body of 

 the large fish for which we had angled so ineffectually. 



It was borne back in triumph to the ship and hung up for 

 general admiration ; in its mangled condition it was three feet 

 ten inches in length and weighed thirty-nine pounds. 



The importance of this capture deserves some description. 

 Large fish are very uncommon in polar waters : as a general 

 rule, the colder the water the smaller the fish. We had 

 known, however, that large fish existed in our regions, as more 

 than once we had found the skeletal remains of one on the ice. 

 But this was the first time we had actually seen the creature 

 itself, and now, alas ! it had no head, and therefore lacked the 

 most important detail for its scientific classification. The 

 most scientific, and, in fact, the only account we ever had of 

 the missing head was from the originator of the incident, who 

 declared that ' it was like one of Mr. Barne's crampons.' This 

 account, whilst it delighted those who not infrequently entered 

 into discussions with Barne as to the size of his feet, failed to 

 supply the accuracy necessary for scientific description. There 

 was one consolation, however, in the fact that if the head had 



