236 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
our course lie quivering on the snow. A few nellies — 
large brown birds — dance round them very awkwardly, 
with their big, webbed feet. They peck at each other, 
and then gobble up the warm meat. It is a hideous thing 
this sealing, and most awfully bloody and cruel. Some 
of the seals were killed with the ice-picks — a short staff 
of natural wood about four feet long with a steel pick- 
head ; others were shot. Sport there was none. I would 
sooner stalk a bunny with a pea-rifle, behind a dyke, 
than shoot a score of these splendid, dark-eyed seals. 
They showed not the least surprise at our presence — just 
raised their heads, and sometimes snarled at us. In 
killing them with the picks there was the faintest element 
of risk, as the snow was deep, and hard on the surface in 
some places, and soft in others. Sometimes we plunged in 
waist deep when delivering a blow, and found ourselves 
unpleasantly close to the seal's gaping jaws. Their huge 
