SEALING IN THE ANTARCTIC. 539 



SEALING IN THE ANTARCTIC. 



BY A MEMBER OF THE KECENT BRITISH WHALING EXPEDITION. 



A LAPSE of nine months has brought back the Antarctic 

 Whaling Expedition. It will be remembered that in Sep- 

 tember last four ships the Balsena, the Diana, the Active, and 

 the Polar Star set out from Dundee to try their fortunes in the 

 south polar seas, since of late the Davis Strait and Greenland 

 fishing has not met with entire success. The expedition was to 

 try to obtain a whale which Sir James Ross described as " greatly 

 resembling and by some said to be identical to the Greenland 

 whale/ 7 and was to restrict its researches to that region visited by 

 Ross in his third voyage to the Antarctic in the summer 1842-'43. 

 At the request of the Royal Geographical Society and of the 

 Royal Meteorological Society, it was arranged that the medical 

 officers accompanying the expedition should, under the guidance 

 of the masters and with the assistance of the other officers, make 

 such scientific observations as were compatible with an expedi- 

 tion so purely commercial in character. With this understand- 

 ing these two societies gave a grant of instruments which Mr. 

 Leigh Smith and others liberally supplemented with other scien- 

 tific outfit. Naturally, therefore, among scientific circles a certain 

 amount of chance scientific work is being looked for. The ex- 

 pedition has added considerably to our knowledge of the meteor- 

 ology of the southern end of the globe and has noted geograph- 

 ical and other features. But, on account of the overwhelming 

 commercialism of the expedition, opportunities, which might 

 have been taken advantage of, have been allowed to pass. 



Owing greatly to the hurried departure of the expedition, 

 much setting in order of material and seeking out of information 

 regarding these scarcely known parts employed a considerable 

 amount of time on the passage out, and systematic meteorological 

 observations were commenced from the outset ; tow netting and 

 other collecting was reserved for latitudes south of 40 south, and 

 for the homeward voyage, for it was deemed unwise to occupy 

 space and make use of preservatives which might be required for 

 material obtained in high southern latitudes. Nevertheless, on 

 the passage out, it was thought advisable on a few occasions to 

 take a cast of the net. For the whole outward passage, with the 

 exception of a few days in the southeast trades, the ships were 

 baffled by head winds, for nearly three weeks we wished our 

 native shores more distant, and for fifteen days the Roaring For- 

 ties racked us with southwest gales. We experienced heavy 

 squally weather, with frequent lightning and heavy rain. The 

 maximum temperature of the air was 83 Fahr. on the 23d and 



