Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

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patches of sun. The ferry called at Horten, a nearby island, then it past Ankra and Otteroy - two large islands - and round a headland to Molde. The first thing we did was to go to a barber's where we each had a shave and myself a haircut also. Then we did a little shopping and had coffee and cakes in a konditori. This took care of the two hours we had to kill in Molde, until we could take a ferry at 11.30 am across the fjord to Vikebugt and Hellend, where we went ashore. From Hellend we took a bus to Alesund. The road ran through a birch-lined valley with snow-covered hills on either side and past several ski hotels. This was a much more traditional region with many old houses, their roofs steeply sloping and with carved gables. Later we heard that at noon that day two lynx had been seen near the road - just about when we were passing. The road passed over a saddle and then ran downhill through a winding valley to Storfjord and on to Alesund, which we reached at 2.15 pm. The boat sailed for Steinshamn at 4.0 pm. so we had time for lunch at the hotel Noreg and a brief look around. I would have a few hours there next Monday to see more of it. I went to the shipping office to change my passage Alesund to Bergen from Thursday, 7 July to Monday 11th, as we had not been able get through the work planned. This meant that I would have only a day in Bergen, but it couldn't be helped. We had a long trip back, calling at many islands and gradually shedding passengers until we reached Steinshamn at 9.15 pm. No whales came in on Tuesday until 10 pm, but I was up at 8.30 am. and checked on specimens etc. most of the day. Then we worked on plan until 1.0 am. and were up at 6 am. for the next whale - working on the plan until 3 pm. Went to bed for a couple of hours then - very tired, up for supper and to bed at 10 pm. expecting another whale at 2.0 am. Unfortunately I wasn't called as requested and by the time I woke the whale had been worked up! So disappointing to miss one. By Thursday 7 July we'd had only 15 whales to examine and I was disenchanted with the situation. There wasn't really much work to do - mostly hanging around waiting for whales and when they'd arrived, hanging round waiting for the men to get on with cutting them up. They came at all hours so we slept when we could fit it in. On Friday, 8 July - two whales came in. It was fine and sunny and very warm and I took some colour photos on the plan - whale carcasses, aspects of their anatomy and suchlike. In the afternoon when all was cleared away I went for a walk along the coast and found a lovely place on top of a headland where I could sit in the heather with my back to a rock and look over the island to the hills on the mainland. I sat sucking up the sun as a sponge does water, my eyes closed after a while and beautiful fleeting coloured patterns chased each other over my retina and I thought of Maureen. On Sunday 10 July, after coffee at 6.0 pm. we went fishing, for saithe, in Bjorn Saebjornsen's boat with Asrun S - accompanied by Bergtor S and another chap in a second boat. There was thick fog, and one couldn't see more than a few yards. The sea so calm that it mirrored and merged into the mist. It was cold, and through the mist, the low sun occasionally broke to shine on the greasy calm waters. Standing in the bows of the boat was like standing at the end of the world with nothing above or below - a strange feeling - nor was it possible to tell whether the boat was 477
moving because there were no features to compare. The fish were jumping at the surface - some right out of the water - and large numbers of birds were gathering, but we caught very few. Most of the time in fact we were lost and could hear no sound but the mewing of the sea birds. We lost the others and then found them again and took them in tow. Finally we found the station - still in very thick fog and there was quite a crowd waiting anxiously. It was 1.0 am. We had coffee and bread and jam and went to bed. 478
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LARGE ANIMALS AND WIDE HORIZONS: AD
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FOREWORD When Richard M. Laws retir
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we might say today and led to deep
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We collaborated with the Royal Navy
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Chapter 1 Northumberland: Boy on th
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occasional nugget for money. The po
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to the cheers of the supporters. Cr
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from the allotments. I can still ta
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From my perspective local politics
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Because we returned each year for s
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uined abbey and a castle on a rocky
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a new lightweight "Raleigh" bicycle
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Chapter 2 Exploring the Lake Distri
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snow, catching the light and shadow
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keen climber and member of the Fell
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irds; stones and rocks abounded and
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The old school buildings were in Cu
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on mycorrhiza (the beneficial close
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inculcated self-reliance and practi
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who came by boat across the lake. S
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need of rest from the incessant air
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matter!" One Saturday in May l941 I
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straightforward until we came to th
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was still another 2 1 2 miles acros
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very strange as he was evidently a
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anything like it, hadn’t the fain
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Chapter 3 A Cambridge Student I tra
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stodgy dried egg omelettes late at
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never saw him because he cut most o
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patrolled the DR. At the end of eac
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Cultural influences at that time Sy
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Reading parties and vacation work I
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Holme, Ken Ashby, Alan Cock, Elspet
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Brian had done some novel work on p
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went up to Topsham and sampled the
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Office. Brian and Colin were biolog
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Islands and the Debenham Islands (i
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observations of their behaviour. I
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I was sorry to miss my elder brothe
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suspected it might have been the re
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The menu was: Soup - Turkey Sage an
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adjust the binocular focus to watch
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On New Year’s Eve it was extremel
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them off the ship, into the launch
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and the others followed in quick su
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in South Georgia and today the stew
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Of bawdy laughter penetrate Unto th
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Will be safe to step on and drink B
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anaesthetic - Pentathol - required
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After a very enjoyable and noisy ev
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chorus girl from Leicester. David a
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The Falkland Islands Then, at 4.45
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Next day I was on galley duty so th
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anchiae, and a large encrusting spo
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meet Derek. They were out but I fou
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was a black terminal band to the ta
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midsummer when some begin to get di
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ehind, about 70 feet above sea leve
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times during l929-1937. In l931/32
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leading to North Point is more or l
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seldom below -12°C. In terms of hu
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the ice faces of the peaks and the
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filled the gaps with wood wool and
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Work continued on the fitting out a
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Hill (907ft). This is the highest p
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A fortnight later, we decided to go
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Giant petrel colonies were numerous
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We cut across Orwell Glacier and ro
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more we set off down - but not befo
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Derek and I had a look at a rock ex
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145
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"the thing that strikes you is that
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Fuchs to arrange for us to be sent
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As to rubbish disposal, the site wa
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lively, questioning mind. He fitted
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specimens, clothes etc. and there w
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ut healed fairly quickly. I caught
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presence of others got one down. In
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Cooking. During the winter we were
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irthday. The birthday cake was very
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11 February l949 was the anniversar
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Edward Wilson, the biologist with C
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fortunate, as apart from a few nove
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4 ft., banking up snow behind some
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173
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eflected in the writing. Summer l94
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1.2°C and +1 °C, there was a cont
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was a touch green in hue. A few sno
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completely broke up the ice in the
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then shot up to -4°C overnight, fa
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sudden deepening from 2 ft to 5 ft
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accessible. We had breakfast and lo
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its fore-flippers. I took a series
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fine sunset effect on the Coronatio
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mauve, violet, purple, deep blue, o
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full of brash ice and small growler
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came in squalls, which tended to pu
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was fitter than the others because
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immatures had been absent for some
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possible to lie full length, even d
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should provide about 4 500 calories
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as was standard practice, because o
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journey of about the same duration
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journey, asking for details. Derek
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It was a misty day when I looked ou
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to my bosom, while Derek fiddled wi
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with the Sandefjord Twins behind it
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On 1 August the temperature was -14
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sledge. He was bleeding from one or
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sledge slightly differently, with t
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two-year stock of food, clothing (t
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In mid-July we listened to the FIDS
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We heard that the "John Biscoe" had
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The ships left on 5 December. I was
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18!); also various thermometers, st
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to study a very large established e
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year. In May 1949 I pursued the pro
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specimens back myself under my pers
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Swedish-British expedition so as to
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243
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Signy. The leopard is supposed to b
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possible. The shore here was deeply
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and it was then time for lunch. The
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couldn't move and there was nothing
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unpleasant and salutary incident il
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while I watched for an hour in a sn
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the webs. As Ralph walked away all
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Cow ‘green 7’ flipped snow onto
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(medical) stretcher to weigh the el
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another bull approached to some 60
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the harem. From this it appeared th
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Weddell - probably a 3-yr old femal
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cleaned the skin; lighting a fire a
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Two other females seemed to be ‘e
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proved to be pregnant. Next day a m
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mother had a large bloodstained sca
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attle-scarred males. There appeared
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side to side on the pup’s body as
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the young Weddell pups. We put flip
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283
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The only other birds were the Antar
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In the next few days we watched Dom
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grating, chirring noise and I locat
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shrimping net. He put up the terns,
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one's fingers are anywhere near the
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wings. The undersurface of the body
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notice. It was restless, scratching
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I began to construct what I called
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A week later, penguins were still a
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fish's? There was a lovely tern chi
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e sure of identification in future.
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lew about all over the place. They
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appeared to be formed but occasiona
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gentoos and Adélies - stopping and
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first skua egg near Balin Point. Th
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we helped with the feeding process,
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in order to introduce the species t
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wine, examples of Madeira needlewor
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and visited each other in our respe
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several years published a short pap
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about obtaining registration for th
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She had been thinking about visitin
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got up to go he said, "Oh, by the w
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a grazing tussock beetle was the cu
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showed up startlingly. We put the s
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‘hairy’ fringe over the cliff e
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New Island, Beaver Island and Wedde
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where we still hoped to land, weath
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The evening passed quickly with tea
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and then headed towards Albemarle R
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were towed back to the station and
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This was the first station to be es
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dryers, the guano store, would be f
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Hestesletten of Mt Paget (2915m) an
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and the light administrative duties
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on the rocks. We launched the dingh
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(formerly to Lever Bros.). The wind
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Most of the charts of South Georgia
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flensed from the seal in eight stri
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However, the chart appeared to be s
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to the almost landlocked inner bay.
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lock of rock. We erected the two te
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ow back to Grytviken along the oute
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the cows red-tail. Two of the cows
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(bull O) had 14 cows and 2 pups. Bu
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In area 10 there was one harem of 2
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1 October was a fine morning with l
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In area 6 several cows had hauled o
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them a most interesting monster - S
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There were two harems in area 11, o
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the cows and creates a bank in the
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Then the pup slid out in a rush at
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Discovery Point and more extensive
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depart on the first visit of Biscoe
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of it, although her motor boat made
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The South Georgia Survey team had h
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397
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for lunch on the way for steaks and
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An Arctic Voyage. A friend from ear
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We did three bottom temperature cas
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gone to a dentist in England - anot
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As the trawlers lay all night gutti
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At that time FIDS had no future job
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411
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cutters of 30 to 40 tons that were
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eginning of April, but since Novemb
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and 316 kg of meat and bone meal. F
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the total annual catch. But a decli
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were stable and natural mortality r
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population - the initial cohort - w
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so far. In fact the average oil yie
Page 428 and 429: In 1963 sub-let its lease to the in
Page 430 and 431: In the event, when I became Directo
Page 432 and 433: departure was delayed and we weren'
Page 434 and 435: There was not too much to do and I
Page 436 and 437: On 30 November, a few hours sailing
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Page 440 and 441: sperm whale work. Worked till eight
Page 442 and 443: time on the whaling grounds. We had
Page 444 and 445: from the stern. One was hauled aboa
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Page 448 and 449: say, to avoid going over the side,
Page 450 and 451: was a bitterly cold wind on deck. I
Page 452 and 453: long low black cloud on the horizon
Page 454 and 455: uoy, with a wire loop through which
Page 456 and 457: managed to avoid the ice floes; had
Page 458 and 459: word because they told me that it s
Page 460 and 461: Then to Haut Bay, which was very be
Page 462 and 463: keen sense of humour and stimulatin
Page 464 and 465: Taking a picnic we drove to Carvoer
Page 466 and 467: illiantly coloured and the calcite
Page 468 and 469: Because of the Navy's great interes
Page 470 and 471: Arthur Stride, was a marine geologi
Page 472 and 473: work on Balaena. and would be bette
Page 474 and 475: In l958 I was an invited speaker at
Page 476 and 477: Molde and had lunch at the hotel. T
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Page 482 and 483: Scotland and the Hebrides, about my
Page 484 and 485: Next day Brenda was off Rona at mid
Page 486 and 487: We spent a little time that day on
Page 488 and 489: cleft in the rocks - it was unable
Page 490 and 491: inspected the landing place to asce
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Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

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