people call it. I am still comfortable in cotton shirts and whites, while
some are wearing Shetland gear. Nearly everybody is provided with
Shetland things. I am glad you have marked mine, as they are all so much
alike. I am certainly as well provided with private gear as anybody, and
far better than most, so, being as well a generator of heat in myself, I
should be O.K. in any temperature. By the bye Evans and Wilson are very
keen on my being in the Western Party, while Campbell wants me with him
in the Eastern Party. I have not asked to go ashore, but am keen on
anything and am ready to do anything. In fact there is so much going on
that I feel I should like to be in all three places at once--East, West
and Ship."

FOOTNOTES:

[34] Ross, _Voyage to the Southern Seas_, vol. i. pp. 22-24.

[35] Bowers' letter.




CHAPTER II

MAKING OUR EASTING DOWN


"Ten minutes to four, sir!"

It is an oilskinned and dripping seaman, and the officer of the watch, or
his so-called snotty, as the case may be, wakes sufficiently to ask: