FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
feet in the boats, with a cutting south wind driving 
the snow dust through our clothes. The crew are all 
buoyed up with the prospect of what is now almost a 
certainty, a good pay day when they get home. They 
receive the principal part of their share of the profits 
from the blubber-money. 
On Thursday last we had quite an exciting day's seal- 
ing. In the morning we found ourselves almost outside 
the last of the streams of loose ice with a lumpy sea 
running in from the open. 
The first four boats were lowered in the smooth water 
before wc came out of the pack. Then the Balsena held 
on, and dropped us near a small stream of ice in the open 
water, on which were a great number of seals. 
It was a pleasant change rowing in a tumbling sea after 
the monotony of calm inside the ice, pleasant and exhila- 
rating to see the blue waves surge up behind the white reefs 
and come pouring over the ice tongues, green as emerald, 
or burst high into the sunny air, to fall in glittering 
showers. The ice islands were rolling and grinding 
against each other with a slow, deep sound, and the small 
pieces rattled together and filled the air with a clashing as 
of countless plates and knives. The harpooneer jumped 
on to the island, and two of us had to blaze away as fast 
as we could load and fire, for the seals on this piece of 
ice seemed to believe in flight We picked off those 
that were more distant and those that were moving away, 
the rest gained confidence when they saw their com- 
panions lie down, and waited quietly till each had a bullet 
in the fatal spot at the back of their lovely heads. 
