FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
Just after killing the seal there was a shout amongst 
the men forward, ( A Uni ! A Uni ! ' — the whalers' term 
for a Narwhale. Several men said they saw their 
horns. 
The crow's-nest was sent aloft to-day. It is a 
cask, about five 
feet deep, paint- 
ed white, with 
iron clamps that 
clasp on to the 
main -topgallant 
mast. In the 
bottom there is 
a trap-door. To 
get into the nest 
you climb up a 
Jacob's ladder — 
wooden ratlins 
rigged on two 
backstays that run from the top-gallant mast-head to the 
cross-trees ; these run through the bottom of the tub. You 
climb up these and shove the trap open with your head, 
and when you are right into the tub you let the trap shut 
below you, and stand on it, and enjoy the extensive view. 
If you prefer it, you can sit on a shelf-seat fixed in the back 
of the tub — a sheltered, quiet place, far removed from the 
troubles of the little world below: round the top of the 
tub there is a small iron balustrade, on which a screen 
runs, so as to shelter the watcher from the wind. 
. . . The boats were all lowered from the skids to the 
o 
