WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 189 



water ; either they are under water or entirely out and up 

 on the ice. I have seen many thousands there, and only 

 remember seeing about a dozen heads above water in several 

 months. And here again, or round our coasts, seals con- 

 stantly show their heads above water. Another odd differ- 

 ence is that in the Southern Polar ice-seals make for the 

 middle of the ice-sheet if they feel any alarm. They expect 

 no harm to come to them on the ice. In fact, you can go up 

 to them and touch them. Here they waddle off as fast as their 

 flippers and caterpillar-like movements will take them, and 

 get into the water for security, the reason being, that in the 

 North they have bears and men and land animals to contend 

 with, and neither man, bear, nor any other land animal 

 exists down South. There the enemy is in the sea, the orca 

 gladiator, the grampus killer, which has most awful jaws 

 and teeth, to judge by the huge wounds one finds on the 

 bodies of these very great seals. 



All day we go under steam through the ice-floes, on each 

 quarter a different effect north-east there is dark cloud, 

 with an ice-blink, a light streak on the clouds telling of a field 

 of pack ice ahead there is darker lilac sky, telling of open 

 water, to our left and the south-west there is white ice and 

 white sky, blending in a blur of soft light, so we know there 

 is endless ice there. All of us, from the cabin boy on his 

 first trip, enjoy the colouring, these exquisite blues and greens 

 of the ice-tongues under water, and of the blues of the under- 

 cut ice, reflected on lavender-tinted ripples. I eagerly make 

 notes in colour, for my recollection of Antarctic ice tints is 

 fading. Yes, blue paper would be the thing to paint on. 

 Is it increase of years that makes me fail to see quite such 

 great beauty here as in the South ? I incline to think the 

 colouring here is not quite so varied, possibly owing to the 

 lesser variety of ice-forms. One might compare the simpler, 

 flatter forms of the ice here and the fantastic shapes of the 

 Antarctic, as the lowlands appear in contrast to the rocks 

 and hills of the Highlands. 



My first impression of Antarctic ice in the Weddell 

 Sea was of bergs bigger than St Peter's, miles in length, 



