286 
FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
started with. The master is Captain Davidson, called by 
the crew Polar Davidson, to distinguish him from — the 
other — Davidson of the Diana. 
To-night the skins are being salted and rolled up and 
stowed away in the fore-peak — a mightily strong place, a 
labyrinth of huge beams and knees which support the 
ship to stand the shock of running into ice. 
Tuesday ; \oth.- — The first good southerly breeze we 
have had since we made the ice ; the light air we had last 
night from the S.E. has risen to a strong wind. Though 
it is blowing hard, the ice to the south shelters us and 
keeps the water so smooth that we scarcely roll enough to 
spill a glass of water. I made a picture this morning of 
the Active beside a large berg — a grounded berg, I believe. 1 
5 P.M. — Strong wind S. by W., yet the thermometer 
is at 33-|°. I should have thought a southerly wind here 
would be certainly very cold. The short, choppy waves 
are wearing away the edges of the ice-pans, and the sea 
is littered with the small pieces of ice that break off. 
We are steaming S.W. to-night through the pack so as 
to get back to Erebus Gulf from the south and so avoid 
the strong currents about Danger Islands. It is most 
aggravating beating like this about the same ground. Un- 
fortunately our instructions are to hunt for whales where 
Ross saw them, instead of far and wide, as I had hoped, 
1 The reader must draw on his fancy for the colouring : the clouds soft 
warm grey, the crags of the berg to the right a purple lead colour, the slope 
dull white; the berg to the left pale violet, with two or three upright 
clefts of deep blue, along the top an edge of pure white ; between the bergs 
a third appears light emerald green. The floating ice in front, some parts 
creamy-white, like broken marrons, others dead marble-white, and two or 
three of vivid sky-blue, frosted with white ; the sea an umber colour, with 
lavender sheen. 
