WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 149 



this particular incident off Korea ; I have seen several whales 

 being attacked both in northern and southern latitudes 

 amongst the Antarctic ice ; in fact, I once could have jumped 

 on to the back of one as it rose right under our stern and gave 

 a huge blast or sigh, with a pack of these black-and-white 

 marauders surrounding it ! 



That was a night in the Antarctic worth recalling. It was 

 a still day, far inside the pack ice. I remember being lost in 

 admiration of the quiet blue lanes of water, blue and violet, 

 and the many pearl-like tints of the ice, and as I looked 

 northerly I was astonished to see penguins jumping on to 



the floe ice in a great hurry, down the sides of one of these 

 long lanes. Penguins do not show themselves in the water, 

 they suddenly leap out like trout and disappear. In this 

 case they remained on the ice-floes, skedaddling to their 

 centres in an agitated manner. Then the cause of the 

 emeute appeared there were hurried blasts from two whales 

 coming down the lane towards us, and behind them the 

 splashing of a pack of black-and-white killers. On they 

 came, the penguins popping on to the ice edges, jumping two 

 or three feet clear of water, and I had time to get into our 

 mizen rigging and get a fine view of the first whale, a hun- 

 dred feet long, as he sailed under our keel. The next one 



