FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
sails are sleeping — -round, and taut, and motionless. Por- 
poises play round our stern, leaping out of the deep blue 
with a sigh and a shower of sparkling drops ; for a second 
they hang with a glint of the setting sun on their black 
polished shoulders, then plunge like a cannon shot into the 
darkening waves, leaving a phosphorescent trail as they 
dart in a zig-zag course beneath and round our hull. How 
often I have read of these sea effects and beard them 
described, and yet how poor, thin, and feeble was the 
colouring of the mental pictures I drew! Clark Russell 
had painted the sea for me with the strong colours of 
Rubens, Pierre Loti had described its pearly tints with 
the grace of Corot ; but they had only turned the first- 
pages of an endless, enthralling picture-book. 
Tuesday, 2.0th September.— -Lat. 53.9 ; long. 13.5. Three 
sparrow-hawks visited us to-day 1 at different times, 
1 About 130 miles west of the Irish coast. 
