320 
FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
The other five had drunk sea-water, and had gone mad 
and jumped overboard. The man that was found in the 
boat had eaten his hat and the signal-flag and some other 
trifles. Both his legs were frost-bitten, and had to come off. 
Now he sits in a little wooden house in Dundee, where 
he opens a gate on the N.B. Railway. I daresay he will tell 
his tale to any one who cares to listen. There was a very 
grim humour about the last chapter of the story. When 
the poor castaway was landed at Dundee, the wives of his 
late companions met him, and made pointed inquiries as 
to their husbands, about the manner of whose decease there 
were wild rumours. When he lay in bed recovering, the 
same ladies continued their visits, to his annoyance, till 
he hit on the plan of talking in his sleep, as if he recalled 
the time in the boats. ' Noo, Jock/ he would groan, when 
Mrs. Jock was at his bedside, * it J s your turn noo, ma man. 
No' but that I 'm sorry for ye, laddie, but ye maun dee, 
man — I 'm fair faumished.' My informant did not linger 
overthe story. Sailors seem to avoid the horrible in their 
yarns, perhaps because they know that they themselves 
may at any time have like experiences. 
We got back to the ship at 4.15, and were off again at 
5.10 sent off with many kindly directions to find seals 
where there were no seals. They were * just lyin' a' ower 
the sea/ so we were told— seals of the papillons noirs 
species, I expect. We were dropped in the middle of a 
floe of blocks, varying in size from a cottage to a palace, 
to pick up these phantoms, but in the boats we were 
not sufficiently elevated to see them, and the pack was 
so jammed that it was impossible to move more than 
