r, but we realized that a fire on such an old wooden ship
would be a very serious matter, and greater care was taken after this.

Such a voyage shows Nature in her most attractive form, and always there
was a man close by whose special knowledge was in the whales, porpoises,
dolphins, fish, birds, parasites, plankton, radium and other things which
we watched through microscopes or field-glasses. Nelson caught a
Portuguese man-of-war (Arethusa) as it sailed past us close under the
counter. These animals are common, but few can realize how beautiful they
are until they see them, fresh-coloured from the deep sea, floating and
sailing in a big glass bowl. It vainly tried to sail out, and vigorously
tried to sting all who touched it. Wilson painted it.

From first to last the study of life of all kinds was of absorbing
interest to all on board, and, when we landed in the Antarctic, as well
as on the ship, everybody worked and was genuinely interested in all that
lived and had its being on the fringe of that great sterile continent.
Not only did officers who had no direct interest in anything but their
own particular work or scientific subject spend a large part of their
time in helping, making notes and keeping observations, but the seamen
also had a large share in the specimens and data of all descriptions
which have been brought back. Several of them became good pupils for
skinning birds.

Meanwhile, perhaps the constant cries of "Whale, whale!" or "New bird!"
or "Dolphins!" sometimes found the biologist concerned less eager to
leave his meal than the observers were to call him forth. Good
opportunities of studying the life of sea birds, whales, dolphins and
other forms of life in the sea, even those comparatively few forms which
are visible from the surface, are not too common. A modern liner moves so
quickly that it does not attract life to it in the same way as a
slow-moving ship like the Terra Nova, and when specimens are seen they
are gone almost as soon as they are observed. Those who wish to study sea
life--and there is much to be done in this field--should travel by tramp
steamers, or, better still, sailing vessels.

Dolphins were constantly playing under the bows of the ship, giving a
very good chance for identification, and whales were also frequently
sighted, and would sometimes follow the ship, as did also hundreds of sea
birds, petrels, shearwaters and albatross. It says much for the interest
and keenness o