FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 245 
because the one is worth money and is good to eat ; and 
amongst cetaceans he can pick out a Bowhead for the 
sake of its bone and blubber, but in all the other endless 
list of birds and whales, which have surrounded him from 
boyhood, he takes not the least interest, consequently the 
information he can impart is extremely limited. If you 
ask him the difference between a right whale and, say, a 
1 finner,' his explanation is, *a richt whale and a finner ? 
Oh, there ; s nae mistakin' them — ye ken a richt whale's 
a'-the-gither duffrent frae a finner. There's nae resem- 
blance ava. Na, na ; there 's nae mistakin' the twa when 
ye see them ; a bairn could tell the duffrence.' I verily 
believe that some of these whales here might be stuffed 
to the throat with bone, and these men would pass them 
by, if they were not facsimiles of the whale they know 
in the north. 
We celebrated the evening of Christmas Day in the 
doctor's bunk, — a tight fit for three long men with their 
pipes, but we enjoyed ourselves mightily. Donald and I 
curled into the hole used for a bed, w r hilst Bruce brewed 
our treasured cocoa, which we brought from the Falklands 
for great occasions. Later on we joined the skippers 
in the cabin, and listened to tales of deeds of other years 
— of the killing of great whales, and how the depraved 
skippers, in the old days, drank themselves fuddled on 
a Saturday night, and served out lashins of rum to all 
hands when they killed a big fish, and were not ashamed. 
Nowadays, praise be to God, they are all so very much 
improved, and the crew on these occasions have tea. 
When we turned out of the cabin in the clear morning 
