328 FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC 
Norwegian captains has never had its equal in whaling 
records. Mr. Adams has just gone on board her to 
partake of Captain Larsen's hospitality, and all on board 
down to the stowaways wish him a pleasant evening, for 
he has not been a day off duty, or an hour on shore, 
since the day we left Dundee — the 6th of last September. 
Friday, \yth February. — Last night the thermometer 
dropped suddenly, falling five degrees in five minutes. A 
round bank of mist like a dark boulder formed in the 
west, with a sort of low rainbow arch of grey light above 
it, and the wind, that had been in the north, went round 
suddenly to the west, and blew hard and bitingly cold, 
eivine us a taste of the Antarctic winter which will 
soon freeze us up here if we are not up and away before 
long. Every one is delighted with the prospect of leaving 
this cold country, with, I think, the exception of the 
doctor and myself. He busies himself with plans for 
spending a winter here. The crew have their homes and 
families and their pay waiting for them ; possibly new 
pledges to rejoice their paternal feelings. They have been 
and seen and got all they wanted — perhaps not so much 
as if they had got whalebone, but still more than they had 
expected in the event of there being no whales — whilst 
Bruce and I have been and seen only a fraction of what 
we wished to see, and have nothing to speak of in the way 
of collections either scientific or artistic. However, we try 
to content ourselves with the hope that this expedition 
may add to the interest taken in this end of the world, 
and that another expedition may be sent out, on which 
