d to death,
and the man who lay next to him was convinced he had a bullet in the
middle of his brain--he could feel it wobbling about there! Just now his
recollections only went so far as to tell of a badly wounded Boer who lay
in the next bed to him when he was convalescent, and how the Boer
insisted on getting up to open the door for him every time he left the
ward, much to his own discomfort.

Otherwise the recollections which survive of South Africa are an
excellent speech made on the expedition by John Xavier Merriman, and the
remark of a seaman who came out to dinner concerning one John, the
waiter, that "he moved about as quick as a piece of sticking-plaster!"

Leaving Simon's Town at daybreak we did magnetic work all day, sailing
out from False Bay with a biggish swell in the evening. We ran southerly
in good weather until Sunday morning, when the swell was logged at 8 and
the glass was falling fast. By the middle watch it was blowing a full
gale and for some thirty hours we ran under reefed foresail, lower
topsails and occasionally reefed upper topsails, and many of us were
sick.

Then after two days of comparative calm we had a most extraordinary gale
from the east, a thing almost unheard of in these latitudes (38 deg. S. to
39 deg. S.). All that we could do was to put the engines at dead slow and
sail northerly as close to the wind as possible. Friday night, September
9, it blew force 10 in the night, and the morning watch was very lively
with the lee rail under water.

Directly after breakfast on Saturday, September 10, we wore ship, and
directly afterwards the gale broke and it was raining, with little wind,
during the day.

The morning watch had a merry time on Tuesday, September 13, when a fresh
gale struck them while they were squaring yards. So unexpected was it
that the main yards were squared and the fore were still round, but it
did not last long and was followed by two splendid days--fine weather
with sun, a good fair wind and the swell astern.

[Illustration: THE ROARING FORTIES--E. A. Wilson, del.]

The big swell which so often prevails in these latitudes is a most
inspiring sight, and must be seen from a comparatively small ship like
the Terra Nova for its magnitude to be truly appreciated. As the ship
rose on the crest of one great hill of water the next big ridge was
nearly a mile away, with a sloping valley between. At times these seas
are rounded in giant slopes as smooth as glass; at