FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
pulled and shoved out of the stream as hard as we 
were fit. 
At a safe distance we lay on our oars and watched the 
berg that looked so beautiful and dreamlike cut through 
the pack. It went from end to end, turning up the huge 
ice islands twenty feet thick, as a ploughshare turns turf ; 
but the pieces on which our seals lay were fortunately 
not much disturbed, and we dropped down behind the 
berg and picked them up in its wake. 
Sunday Evening. — The main-hatch has burst at last 
with the weight of the skins. Fortunately the wind, 
which is increasing, is from the south, and we have smooth 
water. Should it veer to the north either the skins must 
go overboard, or all hands take a deep-sea sounding. 
Every one is hard at work ' making off,' getting as many 
skins cleared away as possible in case of emergency. 
Monday, ysth Jan. — Wind almost a hurricane — S. and 
S. by W. with snow. The nights are getting dark, and it 
seems as if the winter weather is coming on us. 
All night it blew furiously, driving us from shelter to 
shelter. For some hours we sheltered in the lee of a 
friendly berg, but we drifted a little too far from it, and 
the wind caught us and hustled us out of the shelter. 
For five hours we kept struggling to regain the position, 
steaming our best against the wind ; but it was no use, 
and we finally swept to leeward for a mile or two and 
dodged in behind another berg. The loose ice drove 
down on us, and crashed into us with such tremendous 
