FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 141 
sandy bottom, but an opaque olive colour like absinthe, 
and here and there are bits of brown sea-weed possibly 
brought out by La Plata current. 
Thursday, 24th AW.— Lat. 40.39 ; long. 48.57. Light wind. 
This morning some whales lay close alongside us. They 
were big fel- 
lows, over forty 
feet long. They 
heaved their 
black pectoral 
fins and enor- 
mous tails high 
above the sur- 
face, and chur- 
ned the water 
white, rolling, grunting, and blowing, in smothered bliss. 
The sailors say th^y were love-making. They paid 
no attention to their namesake, the Balaena, though she 
was nearly on the top of them. They were possibly 
the Pacific hunch-backs, but I could not be sure. Cer- 
tainly they were not the Balcena mysticetiis that we are in 
search of, so we let them be. 
We saw many hundreds of small whales or porpoises 
the night before this last gale. They came up from the 
N.W., and passed us swimming S.E., travelling in com- 
panies of seven or eight, plunging half out of the seas, 
and tossing up spirts of white water. They were about 
seven feet in length, with black round heads and a white 
patch over the eye. Some had patches of grey-white 
