152 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
all he found time to say was : * Ay, but I was gey nearly 
finished that time — I wadna do the like again for a guid 
deal. 1 He and Petrie, our bo'sun, so the story goes on 
board, wounded two full-grown bears, somewhere in the 
fore-quarters, and drove them five miles over pack ice to 
the boats to save themselves the trouble of dragging them, 
prodding them with an ice pick when they wanted to 
turn back. Just at the boats George grew too rash and 
prodded too hard, stumbled, and had the bear on the top 
of him in a twinkling. Petrie was just in time to put a 
bullet in the right place. This is gospel, and happened 
somewhere in 8o° N. latitude last summer: you can buy 
white bear skins in Dundee for five or six pounds. But 
they must soon become scarce if so few ships continue to 
go to the whaling. 
Saturday^ yd December. — Lat. 46.14; long. . This 
is the first day for a fortnight fit to put one's nose out 
of a sleeping-bag. The cold grey hills of water, whose 
summits were distant from each other f a long drive, 5 are 
at last levelled down into a regular, white-capped sea, the 
white crests about a half iron shot apart. 
. . . We are on our course again ! The sun shining 
brightly, the wind blowing from the S.E., a light and 
pleasant breeze, but sharp and chill like the wind that 
shakes down the yellow oak leaves at home in October. 
Here, it is by way of summer. Flocks of little fleecy 
clouds are racing across the pale blue sky, throwing strips 
of purple shadows across the crisp olive-green sea. On 
our poop the boys are sitting in the lee alleyway in a 
