FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 173 
comfortable little office that looked out on the loch. He 
seemed more anxious about the Company's coal ship, 
101 days overdue, than about the affairs of the Dundee 
whaler — naturally enough ! The possibility of the Falk- 
land Islands becoming a whaling- or sealing- station can 
be no pleasant prospect to the Falkland Island Company. 
They at present have the trade of the islands in their 
hands, and cannot look forward with pleasure to Dundee 
whalers bringing settlers who will live independently 
of the Company and possibly compete with them in 
all branches of trade. To the Company's shareholders 
such an Antarctic whaling-station would probably mean 
a loss, but in my opinion the poorer colonists would 
greatly benefit by the competition that would result. 
We would have taken coals here, but the price was £3 
a ton ; yet shipping freights were so low when we left 
Dundee that we could have had coals sent from Dundee 
as ballast to some of the South American ports and 
picked it up at actually the same price it cost at the 
pit mouth. 
We next proceeded to the lodging where the Rev. Mr. 
H was camping to see the natural history specimens 
he had collected, likewise to enjoy a shore spread. The 
doctor and I had made up our minds to go right off into 
the country the moment we landed, with gun and vasculum; 
but once in a comfortable room with pleasant company, 
fresh food, and usquebaugh, we found it hard to move. Then 
we were hospitably entertained by the consul and his wife 
in a cosy little German drawing-room. How we did enjoy 
seeing new faces and listening to new voices! The feeling 
