1 66 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
wind for a vessel entering the harbour. Once into Port 
Stanley harbour, blow high or low, a ship can lie as 
snug as in Dundee dry dock. The bottom is soft green 
mud. 
There was no pilot beating about, so we did without 
one, and trusted to the chart. Whalers are accustomed 
to do without charts or pilots, and pick up rocks and 
shoals by running on to them, usually coming off without 
much harm done, except, perhaps, to the rocks. But 
our great iron merchantmen, which a tap on a rock 
sends to the bottom, must be prevented calling here, when 
they would otherwise do so, by the want of proper pilot- 
age. Yet these islands were occupied by Britain with 
the ostensible reason of making them of use as places of 
call for our merchantmen. I am told that, at the time 
when there were two companies on the islands, the 
pilotage was all that could be wished, owing to the 
competition ; vessels were then seen in plenty of time, 
and were sure to find proper pilotage whenever they 
made the islands. 
On entering the Narrows we thought that a pilot would 
surely appear, for our masts could be seen from the har- 
bour over the low land on either side, and the intended 
visit of the whalers must long have been expected. But 
no sign of pilot or pilot's boat appeared. 
As we turned the bend in the Narrows, the houses of 
Stanley and the vessels in the harbour came into view, and 
we eagerly scanned the latter to see if any of the Dundee 
whalers had arrived before us; but no patent reefing yards 
appeared ; only the regular merchantmen's tall masts and 
