FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
287 
and to these instructions we attend almost to the letter ; 
there may be whales within fifty miles, but we may not 
go in search of them. This southerly wind must be open- 
ing the pack far south, and I believe that were we to 
head in the direction of Weddell's track, which was a little 
to the east of us, we could reach far farther south than he 
ventured with his small, unprotected, sailing- ship. He 
passed through a belt of pack-ice and bergs in the Sixties 
and reached kit 74°S., and found the air was as warm 
there as in 64°, also innumerable blue petrels and a sea 
free of ice ! 
9 p.m. — The wind is blowing up the mist from the 
southern horizon, leaving a long band of yellow under the 
canopy of grey. The rigging is freezing as hard as iron. 
Wednesday^ \\th. — A most beautiful morning — the air 
clear as crystal, sky pale blue, bordered and ribbed with 
