86 
FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
light and shade. A quid of black tobacco well repays 
your model for a sitting. If an idealist, what life can be 
more suitable? The sea and sky allow of ideal flights. 
There are no engagements to-night or to-morrow, no 
letters to write or to answer, no new books, no news- 
papers, and no duns. * To be honest, an artist must be 
frugal ; ' at sea you cannot be otherwise. 
On Monday, a barque made up on us and passed 
us. The few vessels we have fallen in with on our course 
seem to do this with the greatest ease, and we do not 
quite like it. This barque hailed from Bristol, loaded 
with coal. We talked to her very politely for some time 
with our flags, wished her a prosperous voyage, and let her 
go by as if time to us was a matter of no consequence. 
Our heavy wooden sides make us stiff and slow ; but they 
will feel none too thick when we reach the 'country' in 
the south where 
'There's ice and there's snow, 
And the stormy winds do blow, 
And the daylight 's never done, brave boys ! ' 
as the whalers sing of the 'country 5 in the far north. 
The accompanying sketch which I find in my journal 
to-day is a modest attempt to represent our worthy doctor 
pursuing science. I have chosen happily, I think, the 
moment of suspended action usually so fraught with ex- 
pression. Another artist with a less delicate taste might 
have represented the doctor in full pursuit ; but such a 
rendering, considering the costume, would, I think, have 
lacked dignity. I give this explanation, as the reader of 
artistic, rather than scientific, tastes might take it for a 
