FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
birds, exactly like fantails, fluttering above our fore-mast 
They flew about the mast-head for a little, as if they 
were going to light, then dropped into the sea, where 
they floated as land birds do when they fall into water, 
with their wings spread out and partly submerged, then 
they rose and fluttered round us again and went away. 
They did not come far enough to windward, so I had not 
a good chance of bringing one down. I suppose they 
must have been Chionis, sheathbills, but I never heard 
that sheathbills could swim. 
Friday,\6thDec. — At 8 A.M. this morning the thermometer 
was at 35 0 , so I take it we are getting near ice. There is 
a heavy mist, and when it lifts we see thousands of sea 
birds on the waves. Molly mauks are flying around us, and 
we hear whales blowing in the mist. This afternoon we 
are making a course between the South Shetlands and 
South Orkneys — the Orkneys rather closer on our lee 
than we care for, as a strong current to the east is 
helping us to make lee-way. 
We had our first glimpse of the Polar world this after- 
noon : a thin mist rose from the sea and showed us a huge 
island of ice at some miles distant, white and glittering 
in the faint sunlight. I should think it was about half a 
mile long and about two hundred feet high ; the top was 
as level as a billiard table and absolutely white. The 
precipitous sides were of a faint grey blue, with great sea- 
worn green caves shaped like Gothic arches ; in these we 
could see the swell rising and falling and bursting out in 
soft foam hundreds of feet in the air. 
