292 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
the men of the Active would give a more graphic descrip- 
tion. We were also told that the whale towed the Active 
on a sunken rock ; but whether this happened actually in 
the pursuit or after the battle is not clear. 
The four masters are on board now, and have come to 
the conclusion that we must make the best of a bad 
business, fill up with oil and seal-skins, and call for salt to 
preserve the skins at Monte Video or some other port, 
then up stick and away home. 
I think that almost every one in the fleet still believes 
that Sir James Ross could not have been mistaken about 
seeing right whales here, though, unfortunately, we have 
not had such luck ; and I think every one feels that it 
would have been as well to stop at home as to come out 
here and potter about in one spot waiting for the whales 
to come alongside. Of course the masters of the vessels 
are not responsible for the half measures. They would 
undoubtedly hunt far and wide if the instructions from 
home did not bind them down to one quarter. 
I must jump over some days in my journal, as my daily 
notes seem all so much alike that the reading of them 
must be tedious. Not that any two days here are alike 
— far from it. Each has its own strange effects : solemn, 
heavy, misty days, — bright days when the sun blazes 
.down on us, tanning us red-brick, quite a different colour 
from the mahogany-brown of the tropical tan — cold, windy 
days, with the wind humming through the frozen shrouds, 
when we hug the lee of a pack or iceberg and think of 
home, and fires, and warm rooms. The changes come 
