FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 259 
bent double, as if he were stalking an educated seal 
of the north. Bonnar has been so long at the New- 
foundland sealing that he deems this style of approach 
necessary here ; we try to chaff him out of it without 
success. 
The seal was one of the large whity-yellow fellows with 
small, dog-like head and grand black eyes. I made a 
jotting of the men flinching him ; as a piece of colour the 
effect was gorgeous — masses of scarlet, dazzling white, and 
the blue sea. The snuffling of the seal, and the sound of the 
blood spouting and fizzling into the snow, with the crisp 
sound of the steel in the quivering flesh was hardly nice, 
and when the red carcase sat up and looked at itself, I 
looked up to see if God's eye was looking. 
Just as Bonnar and Campbell were going to heave the 
skin into the boat with one great lift, the edge 0/ the ice 
broke, and they both went into the water. They clutched 
at the snow ledge and the gunwale of the boat, and we 
pulled them out. Campbell had to come out over the top 
of the gory blubber, and looked a sorry spectacle, as he 
dripped on the snow. He didn't ' moind the wettin' '; 
what he objected to was 'the bloomin' blood all over his 
bloomm' clothes/ What difference it made I could not 
see, as we had been up to the eyes in gore for weeks 
past. 
We only picked up a few seals, and had a great deal 
of rowing, and got back to the ship with appetites that 
made the black penguin mess delicious. 
The skipper is on board the Jason to-night, and she is 
lying about a mile or two to windward. In the evening 
