FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 305 
After we had got nearly a boat-load of skins off the 
one stream, we pulled alongside, the skins were hauled on 
board, and we dropped under the Balsena's stern, and went 
in tow. This towing behind a ship is bad at any time, 
and when there is a sea on, with lumps of ice swinging into 
the ship's wake in addition, it is anything but pleasant. 
The event of the day was our getting a number 
of seals off the side of an iceberg. This, I am told, is 
unprecedented in the annals of sealing. It is certainly 
the first time I have seen seals out here on anything 
but pack ice. They lay scattered over the steeply sloping 
side of a berg in such numbers that we felt we were bound 
to get them somehow or other. The difficulty was to get 
on to the berg, for the ice broke away abruptly at the foot 
of the slope, and the sea had undercut the edge with 
green caves, so we had to be pretty cautious about land- 
ing, so as to prevent our bows getting under the ledge. 
Very slowly we approached, waiting for a roller to lift us 
up to the level of the slope. As we rose, three of us 
jumped from the boat and clung on to the ice with our 
picks, whilst those in the boat backed off. I think we 
were as astonished at finding ourselves on the side of the 
berg as the seals were at seeing us there. The ice was 
flinty hard, so after we had flinched them all there was 
none of the usual grind of dragging the skins, we merely 
slid them down the slope like toboggans. 
While we were flinching, the boat had pulled back to 
the ship and got some more men to keep her in hand 
when taking us off. They brought a line with them, and 
when within a few yards of the berg they threw it up to 
U 
