SEALING IN THE ANTARCTIC. 543 



are away after plunder. Now a full boat is making its way to the 

 ship. We steam toward her. As we near, the engines are stopped 

 and she glides alongside. The cook or the steward rushes from 

 the lookout, the doctor from the wheel, one working the steam 

 winch and the other unswitching the skins, while the boat's crew 

 swallow a hasty meal. The boat being unloaded, they are off 

 again, for another fill. The greatest rivalry exists between the 

 boats 7 crews, each endeavoring to get the greatest load for the 

 day. Another boat is seen approaching, and away we go again, 

 dodging this piece of ice, charging that piece with our sturdy 

 bows, boring away where the ice lies closely packed, rounding 

 this berg, and on to the next until we reach the boat, which is 

 down to the gunwale in the water, with its crew cautious, plying 

 their oars as they lie crouched upon their bloody load. So it goes 

 on from day to day ; hay is made while the sun shines, and the 

 pile of skins and blubber rises high upon the ship's deck. Then 

 comes a gale of wind, accompanied by fog, sleet, and snow, and 

 we lay to under the lee of a stream of ice or a berg. The deck 

 becomes busy with life, the blubber is "made off" and put into 

 the tanks, and the skins are salted. When the gale is over, at the 

 end of two or three days, the next few days of calm weather are 

 again taken advantage of in the boats. Thus the periods of gales 

 and calms which alternate in this part of the world come in quite 

 conveniently for sealing, the produce obtained in the calm weath- 

 er being "made off" during the gales. We never experienced 

 much swell, being sheltered by the land, our work lying only a 

 little east of Erebus and Terror Gulf. With " all hands and the 

 cook " so incessantly occupied in the calm weather, all scientific 

 observations were at a standstill, but in the evening, and some- 

 times during the night, a few chance readings could be obtained, 

 and during gales fairly copious meteorological notes were ob- 

 tained. 



The seals are very foolish beasts. The present generation 

 have never seen man, and they survey him open-mouthed and 

 fearful, during which process they are laid low with club or bul- 

 let. Sometimes they are so lazy with sleep that a man may dig 

 them in the ribs with the muzzle of his gun, and, wondering what 

 is disturbing their slumbers, they raise their head, which quickly 

 falls pierced with a bullet. There may only be one seal on a 

 piece of ice, which is usually the case with the larger kind ; but 

 the smaller kinds lie in half-dozens and tens, and as many as 

 forty-seven were seen on one piece. Seldom do any escape one 

 cartridge means one seal. Besides the three seals mentioned we 

 came across a fourth, a large kind with a small head, small fore 

 flippers, very thickly blubbered, and a more woolly skin. The 

 last day of our sealing we were among a great host of the largest 



