250 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
history, dating and discussing the Stuarts from the sons 
of Banquo to Queen Victoria. Broch must have left 
school half a century ago, yet he knew far more about 
the subject than I did, and I have been grinding at 
it for months. So much for the education of our old 
country schools. 
Tuesday \ 2jth. — Barometer 29/6 in. ; thermometer up at 
31 0 , — this is about our average glass here. Fresh wind 
from the S.E. The air is damp, and we feel as if the 
temperature was far below freezing-point. In the 'tween- 
decks the men are making-off the blubber from the skins 
and throwing it into the iron tanks that occupy the lower 
part of our hull. 
Evening. — No whales yet ; but every one has one ear 
pricked for the long-expected shout 'A fall!' — a shout that 
will make us tumble neck and crop into the boats. Even 
in our bunks we are ready to jump up at a moment's 
notice. We sleep with our clothes beside us, tied up in a 
bundle, so that when the time comes we can jump into the 
boats and dress as we row. 
The excitement when a whale is seen is almost beyond 
belief. Men have been known after long spells of whale- 
chasing in the boats, to go almost off their heads. On 
the shout of 'Tumble up and go to the boats' they 
have been known to rush on deck with their bundles and 
throw them into the water instead of the boats, from 
sheer nervousness. Once a boat's crew rushed on deck, 
threw their bundles over the side into the boat, as they 
thought, and followed themselves ; but there was no boat ! 
