FROM ENGLAND TO SOUTH AFRICA 7 
watched through microscopes or field-glasses. Nelson 
caught a Portuguese man-of-war (Arethusa) as it sailed 
past us close under the counter. These animals are com- 
mon, but few can realize how beautiful they are until they 
see them, fresh-coloured from the deep sea, floating and | 
sailing in a big glass bowl. It vainly tried to sail out, 
and vigorously tried to sting all who touched it. Wilson 
painted it. 
From first to last the study of life of all kinds was of 
absorbing interest to all on board, and when we landed in 
the Antarctic, as well as on the ship, everybody worked 
and was genuinely interested in all that lived and had its 
being on the fringe of that great sterile continent. Not 
only did officers who had no direct interest in anything 
but their own particular work or scientific subject spend a 
large part of their time in helping, making notes and keep- 
ing observations, but the seamen also had a large share in 
the specimens and data of all descriptions which have been 
brought back. Several of them became good pupils for 
skinning birds. 
Meanwhile, perhaps the constant cries of ‘ Whale, 
whale !”’ or “‘ New bird!” or “ Dolphins !”’ sometimes 
found the biologist concerned less eager to leave his meal 
than the observers were to call him forth. Good oppor- 
tunities of studying the life of sea birds, whales, dolphins 
and other forms of life in the sea, even those compara- 
tively few forms which are visible from the surface, are 
not too common. A modern liner moves so quickly that it 
does not attract life to it in the same way as a slow-moving 
ship like the Terra Nova, and when specimens are seen 
they are gone almost as soon as they are observed. Those 
who wish to study sea life—and there is much to be done 
in this field—should travel by tramp steamers, or, better 
still, sailing vessels. 
Dolphins were constantly playing under the bows of 
the ship, giving a very good chance for identification, and 
whales were also frequently sighted, and would sometimes 
follow the ship, as did also hundreds of sea birds, petrels, 
shearwaters and albatross. It says much for the interest 
