1¢6 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
pedition Wilson states that the true identity of the Bottle- 
nosed whale (Hyperoodon rostrata) in Antarctic Seas has 
not been conclusively established. But that inasmuch as it 
certainly frequents seas so far as 48° S. latitude it is prob- 
able that certain whales which he and other members of 
that expedition saw frequenting the edge of the ice were, 
as they appeared to be, Bottle-nosed whales. For my part, 
without great knowledge of whales, I am convinced that 
these whales which lay but twenty feet below us were whales 
of this species. 
After our rescue by Scott we pitched our tents, as has 
been described, at least half a mile from the fast edge of 
the Barrier. All night long, or as it really was, early morn- 
ing, the Killers were snorting and blowing under the 
Barrier, and sometimes, it seemed, under our tents. Time 
and again some member of the party went out of the tent to 
see if the Barrier had not broken farther back, but there 
was novisible change, and it must have been that the appar- 
ently solid ice on which we were, was split up by crevasses 
by the big swell which had been running, and that round 
us, hidden by snow bridges, were leads of water in which 
whales were cruising in search of seal. 
The next day most of the ice had gone out to sea, and 
I do not think the whales were so numerous. The most 
noticeable thing about them that day was the organization 
shown by the band of whales which appeared after Bowers’ 
pony, Uncle Bill, had fallen between two floes, and we 
were trying to get him towards the Barrier. ‘Good God, 
look at the whales,” said some one, and there, in a pool 
of water behind the floe on which we were working, lay 
twelve great whales in perfect line, facing the floe. And 
out in front of them, like the captain of a company of 
soldiers, was another. As we turned they dived as one 
whale, led by the big fellow in front, and we certainly ex- 
pected that they would attack the floe on which we stood. 
Whether they never did so, or whether they tried and 
failed, for the floes here were fifteen or sixteen feet thick, I 
do not know; we never saw them again. 
One other incident of those days is worth recalling. 
