FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
301 
to the men's quarters, and handed me quite a number of 
books that he had read on the voyage out, for which I agreed 
to send him others in exchange. Then he brewed coffee, 
and insisted on my smoking a magnificent Dutch pipe 
that he took from his chest. His friend 1 was laid up with 
inflammation of the lungs, brought on by the exposure ; 
so we sat beside him and talked and smoked all the 
evening. Fancy talking of art, music, and literature in a 
focsle ! and these men knew what they were talking 
about. I felt very sorry for the invalid : of all places in 
which to be laid up, a focsle must be the worst. As we 
sat there we could scarcely hear our own voices — a man 
was cooking on the stove close to this man's bunk ; another 
was playing on a melodeon ; some were singing, and all 
smoking and talking — a pandemonium of sound, and the 
whole place reeked with wet clothes, and the smell of 
seal-skins, cooking, and tobacco. They said their only 
really happy time was when they pulled-to the sliding- 
doors of their bunks and read by the light of a small 
lamp. Imagine shutting yourself up in a frousty box six 
feet by three, with a book and an oil lamp, and calling it 
happiness ! 
Sunday, 22nd. — A long day of hard grinding at the 
oars, killing and flinching seals. A day full of sunlight and 
quiet beauty. Lunch of ship-biscuit and snow ; returned 
to the ship late at night, and dog-tired. 
1 Sailors often go for years to sea in the company of the same friend. Some- 
times three men hang together, and always try to sail on the same vessel. 
