72 British Antarctic Expedition. 
in a state of decomposition, so it was difficult to 
classify them. Some pebbles were also found in 
the stomach of the male, the largest of which was 
of about the size 
of an ordinary 
nut. 
In the pack 
one day one of 
the members, 
who evidently 
had not. been 
accustomed to a 
gun, was going 
to shoot a white 
petrel on the 
wing. The bird 
was swift, and 
the member with the gun tried to be likewise ; 
and in the excitement of following the bird with 
the gun he fired just as it was in the direction of 
the vessel. I was standing on the quarter-deck at 
the time, and some few of the shots struck the deck 
beside me. Poor Mr. Hanson, who was taking sea 
temperatures, received a shower of the shot on his 
back, and was not much pleased. The shooting 
restrictions, which from the beginning had been strict, 
I from that moment made still more so. 
That same member was generally unlucky with a 
gun. Once he borrowed my little pea-rifle, which 
had been specially given to me before my departure 
from Norway, to shoot a penguin on the ice. It 
was the first penguin he had seen, and he got very 
excited. We all saw him chase the bird, which he 
SEAL HUNTING IN THE PACK. 
