this voyage.
We soon became acquainted with the sea-leopard, which waits under the
ice-foot for the little penguins; he is a brute, but sinuous and graceful
as the seal world goes. He preys especially upon the Adelie penguin, and
Levick found no less than eighteen penguins, together with the remains of
many others, in the stomach of one sea-leopard. In the water the leopard
seems "a trifle faster than the Adelies, as one of them occasionally
would catch up with one of the fugitives, who then, realizing that speed
alone would not avail him, started dodging from side to side, and
sometimes swam rapidly round and round in a circle of about twelve feet
diameter for a full minute or more, doubtless knowing that he was
quicker in turning than his great heavy pursuer, but exhaustion would
overtake him in the end, and we could see the head and jaws of the great
sea-leopard rise to the surface as he grabbed his victim. The sight of a
panic-stricken little Adelie tearing round and round in this manner was
sadly common late in the season."[60]

Fish and small seal have also been found in its stomach. With long
powerful head and neck and a sinuous body, it is equipped with most
formidable teeth with which it tears strips out of the still living
birds, and flippers which are adapted entirely for speed in the water. It
is a solitary animal with a large range of distribution. It has been
supposed to bring forth its young in the pack, but nothing definite is
known on this subject. One day we saw a big sea-leopard swimming along
with the ship. He dived under the floes and reappeared from floe to floe
as we went, and for a time we thought he was interested in us. But soon
we sighted another lying away on a floe, and our friend in the water
began to rear his head up perpendicularly, and seemed to be trying to
wind his mate, as we supposed. He was down wind from her, and appeared to
find her at a distance of 150 to 200 yards, and the last we saw of him he
was heading up the side of the floe where she lay.

There are four kinds of seal in the Antarctic; of one of these, the
sea-leopard, I have already spoken. Another is called the Ross seal, for
Sir James Ross discovered it in 1840. It seems to be a solitary beast,
living in the pack, and is peculiar for its "pug-like expression of
countenance."[61] It has always been rare, and no single specimen was
seen on this expedition, though the Terra Nova must have passed through
more pack than most whalers see in a life-time. It looks as if the Ross
seal is more rare than was supposed.

[Illustration: A SEA LEOPARD]

[Illustration: A WEDDELL SEAL]

The very common seal of the Antarctic is the Weddell, which seldom lives
in the pack but spends its life catching fish close to the shores of the
continent, and digesting them, when caught, lying sluggishly upon the
ice-foot. We came to know them later in their hundreds in McMurdo Sound,
for the Weddell is a land-loving seal and is only found in large numbers
near the coast. Just at this time it was the crab-eating seal which we
saw very fairly often, generally several of them together, but never in
large numbers.

Wilson has pointed out in his article upon seals in the Discovery
Report[62] that the Weddell and the crab-eater seal, which are the two
commoner of the Antarctic seals, have agreed to differ both in habit and
in diet, and therefore they share the field successfully. He shows that
"the two penguins which share the same area have differentiated in a
somewhat similar manner." The Weddell seal and the Emperor penguin "have
the following points in common, namely, a littoral distribution, a fish
diet and residential non-migratory habit, remaining as far south the
whole year round as open water will allow; whereas the other two (the
crab-eating seal and the Adelie penguin) have in common a more pelagic
habit, a crustacean diet, and a distribution definitely migratory in the
case of the penguin, and although not so definitely migratory in the case
of the seal, yet checked from coming so far south as Weddell's seal in
winter by a strong tendency to keep in touch with pelagic ice."[63]
Wilson considers that the advantage lies in each case with the
"non-migratory and more southern species," i.e. the Weddell seal and
the Emperor penguin. I doubt whether he would confirm this now. The
Emperor penguin, weighing six stones and more, seems to me to have a very
much harder fight for life than the little Adelie.

Before the Discovery started from England in 1901 an 'Antarctic Manual'
was produced by the Royal Geographical Society, giving a summary of the
information which existed up to that date about this part of the world.
It is interesting reading, and to the Antarctic student it proves how
little was known in some branches of science at that date, and what
strides were made during the next few years. To read what was known of
the birds and beasts of the Antarctic and then to read Wilson's
Zoological Report of the Discovery Expedition is an education in what one
man can still do in an out-of-the-way part of the world to elucidate the
problems which await him.

The teeth of a crab-eating seal "are surmounted by perhaps the most
complicated arrangement of cusps found in any living mammal."[64] The
mouth is so arranged that the teeth of the upper jaw fit into those of
the lower, and "the cusps form a perfect sieve ... a hitherto
unparalleled function for the teeth of a mammal."[65] The food of this
seal consists mainly of Euphausiae, animals much like shrimps, which it
doubtless keeps in its mouth while it expels the water through its teeth,
like those whales which sift their food through their baleen plates."
This development of cusps in the teeth of the [crab-eating seal] is
probably a more perfect adaptation to this purpose than in any other
mammal, and has been produced at the cost of all usefulness in the teeth
as grinders. The grit, however, which forms a fairly constant part of the
contents of the stomach and intestines, serves, no doubt, to grind up the
shells of the crustaceans, and in this way the necessity for grinders is
completely obviated."[66]

The sea-leopard has a very formidable set of teeth suitable for his
carnivorous diet. The Weddell, living on fish, has a more simple group,
but these are liable to become very worn in old age, due to his habit of
gnawing out holes in the ice for himself, so graphically displayed on
Ponting's cinematograph. When he feels death approaching, the crab-eating
seal, never inclined to live in the company of more than a few of his
kind, becomes still more solitary. The Weddell seal will travel far up
the glaciers of South Victoria Land, and there we have found them lying
dead. But the crab-eating seal will wander even farther. He leaves the
pack. "Thirty miles from the sea-shore and 3000 feet above sea-level,
their carcases were found on quite a number of occasions, and it is hard
to account for such vagaries on other grounds than that a sick animal
will go any distance to get away from its companions"[67] (and perhaps it
should be added from its enemies).

Often the under sides of the floes were coloured a peculiar yellow. This
coloration is caused by minute unicellular plants called diatoms. The
floating life of the Antarctic is most dense. "Diatoms were so abundant
in parts of the Ross Sea, that a large plankton net (18 meshes to an
inch) became choked in a few minutes with them and other members of the
Phytoplankton. It is extremely probable that in such localities whales
feed upon the plants as well as the animals of the plankton."[68] I do
not know to what extent these open waters are frequented by whales during
the winter, but in the summer months they are full of them, right down to
the fringe of the continent. Most common of all is the kind of sea-wolf
known as the Killer Whale, who measures 30 feet long. He hunts in packs
up to at least a hundred strong, and as we now know, he does not confine
his attacks to seal and other whales, but will also hunt man, though
perhaps he mistakes him for a seal. This whale is a toothed beast and a
flesh-eater, and is more properly a dolphin. But it seems that there are
at least five or six other kinds of whales, some of which do not
penetrate south of the pack, while others cruise in large numbers right
up to the edge of the fast ice. They feed upon the minute surface life of
these seas, and large numbers of them were seen not only by the Terra
Nova on her various cruises, but also by the shore parties in the waters
of McMurdo Sound. In both Wilson and Lillie we had skilled whale
observers, and their work has gone far to elucidate the still obscure
questions of whale distribution in the South.

The pack-ice offers excellent opportunities for the identification of
whales, because their movements are more restricted than in the open
ocean. In order to identify, the observer generally has only the blow,
and then the shape of the back and fin as the whale goes down, to guide
him. In the pack he sometimes gets more, as in the case of Balaenoptera
acutorostrata (Piked whale) on March 3, 1911. The ship "was ploughing her
way through thick pack-ice, in which the water was freezing between the
floes, so that the only open spaces for miles around were those made by
the slow movement of the ship. We saw several of these whales during the
day, making use of the holes in the ice near the ship for the purpose of
blowing. There was scarcely room between the floes for the whales to come
up to blow in their usual manner, which consists in rising almost
horizontally, and breaking the surface of the water with their backs. On
this occasion they pushed their snouts obliquely out of the water, nearly
as far as the eye, and after blowing, withdrew them below the water
again. Commander Pennell noted that several times one rested its head on
a floe not twenty feet from the ship, with its nostrils just on the
water-line; raising itself a few inches, it would blow and then subside
again for a few minutes to its original position with its snout resting
on the floe. They took no notice of pieces of coal which were thrown at
them by the men on board the ship."[69]

But no whale which we saw in the pack, and we often saw it elsewhere
also, was so imposing as the great Blue whale, some of which were
possibly more than 100 feet long. "We used to watch this huge whale come
to the surface again and again to blow, at intervals of thirty to forty
seconds, and from the fact that at each of four or five appearances no
vestige of a dorsal fin was visible, we began to wonder whether we had
not found the Right whale that was once reported to be so abundant in
Ross Sea. Again and again the spout went up into the cold air, a white
twelve-foot column of condensed moisture, followed by a smooth broad
back, and yet no fin. For some time we remained uncertain as to its
identity, till at last in sounding for a longer disappearance and a
greater depth than usual, the hinder third of the enormous beast appeared
above the surface for the first time with its little angular dorsal fin,
at once dispelling any doubts we might have had."[70]

It is supposed to be the largest mammal that has ever existed.[71] As it
comes up to blow, "one sees first a small dark hump appear and then
immediately a jet of grey fog squirted upwards fifteen to eighteen feet,
gradually spreading as it rises vertically into the frosty air. I have
been nearly in these blows once or twice and had the moisture in my face
with a sickening smell of shrimpy oil. Then the hump elongates and up
rolls an immense blue-grey or blackish-grey round back with a faint ridge
along the top, on which presently appears a small hook-like dorsal fin,
and then the whole sinks and disappears."[72]

To the biologist the pack is of absorbing interest. If you want to see
life, naked and unashamed, study the struggles of this ice-world, from
the diatom in the ice-floe to the big killer whale; each stage essential
to the life of the stage above, and living on the stage below:

THE PROTOPLASMIC CYCLE

Big floes have little floes all around about 'em,
And all the yellow diatoms[73] couldn't do without 'em.
Forty million shrimplets feed upon the latter,
And _they_ make the penguin and the seals and whales
Much fatter.

Along comes the Orca[74] and kills these down below,
While up above the Afterguard[75] attack them on the floe:
And if a sailor tumbles in and stoves the mushy pack in,
He's crumpled up between the floes, and so they get
_Their_ whack in.

Then there's no doubt he soon becomes a Patent Fertilizer,
Invigorating diatoms, although they're none the wiser,
So the protoplasm passes on its never-ceasing round,
Like a huge recurring decimal ... to which no
End is found.[76]

We were early on the scene compared with previous expeditions, but I do
not suppose this alone can explain the extremely heavy ice conditions we
met. Possibly we were too far east. Our progress was very slow, and often
we were hung up for days at a time, motionless and immovable, the pack
all close about us. Patience and always more patience! "From the masthead
one can see a few patches of open water in different directions, but the
main outlook is the same scene of desolate hummocky pack."[77] And again:
"We have scarcely moved all day, but bergs which have become quite old
friends are on the move, and one has approached and almost circled
us."[78]

And then without warning and reason, as far as we could see, it would
open out again, and broad black leads and lakes would appear where there
had been only white snow and ice before, and we would make just a few
more miles, and sometimes we would raise steam only to suffer further
disappointment. Generally speaking, a dark black sky means open water,
and this is known as an open-water sky; high lights in the sky mean ice,
and this is known as ice-blink.

The changes were as sudden as they were unexpected. Thus early in the
morning of Christmas Eve, about a fortnight after we had entered the
pack, "we have come into a region of where the open water exceeds the
ice; the former lies in great irregular pools three or four miles or more
across and connecting with many leads. The latter--and the fact is
puzzling--still contain floes of enormous dimensions; we have just passed
one which is at least two miles in diameter...." And then, "Alas! alas!
at 7 A.M. this morning we were brought up with a solid sheet of pack
extending in all directions, save that from which we had come."[79]

Delay was always irksome to Scott. As time went on this waiting in the
pack became almost intolerable. He began to think we might have to winter
in the pack. And all the time our scanty supply of coal was being eaten
up, until it was said that Campbell's party would never be taken to King
Edward VII.'s Land. Scott found decisions to bank fires, to raise steam
or to let fires out, most difficult at this time. "If one lets fires out
it means a dead loss of over two tons, when the boiler has to be heated
again. But this two tons would only cover a day under banked fires, so
that for anything longer than twenty-four hours it is economy to put the
fires out. At each stoppage one is called upon to decide whether it is to
be for more or less than twenty-four hours."[80] Certainly England should
have an oil-driven ship for polar work.

The Terra Nova proved a wonderfully fine ice ship. Bowers' middle watch
especially became famous for the way in which he put the ship at the ice,
and more than once Scott was alarmed by the great shock and collisions
which were the result: I have seen him hurry up from his cabin to put a
stop to it! But Bowers never hurt the ship, and she gallantly responded
to the calls made upon her. Sometimes it was a matter of forcing two
floes apart, at others of charging and breaking one. Often we went again
and again at some stubborn bit, backing and charging alternately, as well
as the space behind us would allow. If sufficient momentum was gained the
ship rode upon the thicker floes, rising up upon it and pressing it down
beneath her, until suddenly, perhaps when its nearest edge was almost
amidships, the weight became too great and the ice split beneath us. At
other times a tiny crack, no larger than a vein, would run shivering from
our bows, which widened and widened until the whole ship passed through
without difficulty. Always when below one heard the grumbling of the ice
as it passed along the side. But it was slow work, and hard on the
engines. There were days when we never moved at all.

"I can imagine few things more trying to the patience than the long
wasted days of waiting. Exasperating as it is to see the tons of coal
melting away with the smallest mileage to our credit, one has at least
the satisfaction of active fighting and the hope of better fortune. To
wait idly is the worst of conditions. You can imagine how often and how
restlessly we climbed to the crow's nest and studied the outlook. And
strangely enough there was generally some change to note. A water lead
would mysteriously open up a few miles away, or the place where it had
been would as mysteriously close. Huge icebergs crept silently towards or
past us, and continually we were observing these formidable objects with
range finder and compass to determine the relative movement, sometimes
with misgivings as to our ability to clear them. Under steam the change
of conditions was even more marked. Sometimes we would enter a lead of
open water and proceed for a mile or two without hindrance; sometimes we
would come to big sheets of thin ice which broke easily as our iron-shod
prow struck them, and sometimes even a thin sheet would resist all our
attempts to break it; sometimes we would push big floes with comparative
ease and sometimes a small floe would bar our passage with such obstinacy
that one would almost believe it possessed of an evil spirit; sometimes
we passed through acres of sludgy sodden ice which hissed as it swept
along the side, and sometimes the hissing ceased seemingly without rhyme
or reason, and we found our screw churning the sea without any effect.

"Thus the steaming days passed away in an ever-changing environment and
are remembered as an unceasing struggle.

"The ship behaved splendidly--no other ship, not even the Discovery,
would have come through so well. Certainly the Nimrod would never have
reached the south water had she been caught in such pack. As a result I
have grown strangely attached to the Terra Nova. As she bumped the floes
with mighty shocks, crushing and grinding a way through some, twisting
and turning to avoid others, she seemed like a living thing fighting a
great fight. If only she had more economical engines she would be
suitable in all respects.

[Illustration: TERRA NOVA]

"Once or twice we got among floes which stood 7 or 8 feet above water,
with hummocks and pinnacles as high as 25 feet. The ship could have stood
no chance had such floes pressed against her, and at first we were a
little alarmed in such situations. But familiarity breeds contempt;
there never was any pressure in the heavy ice, and I'm inclined to think
there never would be.

"The weather changed frequently during our journey through the pack. The
wind blew strong from the west and from the east; the sky was often
darkly overcast; we had snowstorms, flaky snow, and even light rain. In
all such circumstances we were better placed in the pack than outside of
it. The foulest weather could do us little harm. During quite a large
percentage of days, however, we had bright sunshine, which, even with the
temperature well below freezing, made everything look bright and
cheerful. The sun also brought us wonderful cloud effects, marvellously
delicate tints of sky, cloud and ice, such effects as one might travel
far to see. In spite of our impatience we would not willingly have missed
many of the beautiful scenes which our sojourn in the pack afforded us.
Ponting and Wilson have been busy catching these effects, but no art can
reproduce such colours as the deep blue of the icebergs."[81]

As a rule the officer of the watch conned from the crow's nest, shouting
his orders to the steersman direct, and to the engine-room through the
midshipman of the watch, who stood upon the bridge. It is thrilling work
to the officer in charge, who not only has to face the immediate problem
of what floes he dare and what he dare not charge, but also to puzzle out
the best course for the future,--but I expect he soon gets sick of it.

About this time Bowers made a fancy sketch of the Terra Nova hitting an
enormous piece of ice. The masts are all whipped forward, and from the
crow's nest is shot first the officer of the watch, followed by cigarette
ends and empty cocoa mugs, and lastly the hay with which the floor was
covered. Upon the forecastle stands Farmer Hayseed (Oates) chewing a
straw with the greatest composure, and waiting until the hay shall fall
at his feet, at which time he will feed it to his ponies. This crow's
nest, which was a barrel lashed to the top of the mainmast, to which
entrance was gained by a hinged trap-door, shielded the occupant from
most of the wind. I am not sure that the steersman did not have the most
uninviting job, but hot cocoa is a most comforting drink and there was
always plenty to be had.

Rennick was busy sounding. The depths varied from 1804 to at least 3890
fathoms, and the bottom generally showed volcanic deposits. Our line of
soundings showed the transition from the ocean depths to the continental
shelf. A series of temperatures was gained by Nelson by means of
reversible thermometers down to 3891 metres.

The winch upon which the sounding line was wound was worked by hand on
this cruise. It was worked mechanically afterwards, and of course this
ought always to be done if possible. Just now it was a wearisome
business, especially when we lowered a water-sample bottle one day to
1800 metres, spent hours in winding it up and found it still open when it
arrived at the surface! Water samples were also obtained at the various
depths. Lillie and Nelson were both busy tow-netting for plankton with
full-speed, Apstein, Nansen, 24-and 180-mesh nets.

I don't think many at home had a more pleasant Christmas Day than we. It
was beautifully calm with the pack all round. At 10 we had church with
lots of Christmas hymns, and then decorated the ward-room with all our
sledging flags. These flags are carried by officers on Arctic
expeditions, and are formed of the St. George's Cross with a continuation
ending in a swallow-tail in the heraldic colours to which the individual
is entitled, and upon this is embroidered his crest. The men forrard had
their Christmas dinner of fresh mutton at mid-day; there was plenty of
penguin for them, but curiously enough they did not think it good enough
for a Christmas dinner. The ward-room ate penguin in the evening, and
after the toast of 'absent friends' we began to sing, and twice round the
table everybody had to contribute a song. Ponting's banjo songs were a
great success, also Oates's 'The Vly on the tu-urmuts.' Meares sang "a
little song about our Expedition, and many of the members that Southward
would go," of his own composition. The general result was that the
watches were all over the place that night. At 4 A.M. Day whispered in
my ear that there was nothing to do, and Pennell promised to call me if
there was--so I remembered no more until past six.

And Crean's rabbit gave birth to seventeen little ones, and it was said
that Crean had already given away twenty-two.

We had stopped and banked fires against an immense composite floe on the
evening of Christmas Eve. How we watched the little changes in the ice
and the wind, and scanned the horizon for those black patches which meant
open water ahead. But always there was that same white sky to the south
of us. And then one day there came the shadow of movement on the sea, the
faintest crush on the brash ice, the whisper of great disturbances afar
off. It settled again: our hopes were dashed to the ground. Then came the
wind. It was so thick that we could not see far; but even in our
restricted field changes were in progress.

"We commence to move between two floes, make 200 or 300 yards, and are
then brought up bows on to a large lump. This may mean a wait of anything
from ten minutes to half-an-hour, whilst the ship swings round, falls
away, and drifts to leeward. When clear she forges ahead again and the
operation is repeated. Occasionally when she can get a little way on she
cracks the obstacle and slowly passes through it. There is a distinct
swell--very long, very low. I counted the period as about nine seconds.
Every one says the ice is breaking up."[82]

On December 28 the gale abated. The sky cleared, and showed signs of open
water ahead. It was cold in the wind but the sun was wonderful, and we
lay out on deck and basked in its warmth, a cheerful, careless crowd.
After breakfast there was a consultation between Scott and Wilson in the
crow's nest. It was decided to raise steam.

Meanwhile we sounded, and found a volcanic muddy bottom at 2035 fathoms.
The last sounding showed 1400 fathoms; we had passed over a bank.

Steam came at 8 P.M. and we began to push forward. At first it was hard
going, but slowly we elbowed our way until the spaces of open water
became more frequent. Soon we found one or two large pools, several miles
in extent; then the floes became smaller. Later we could see no really
big floes at all; "the sheets of thin ice are broken into comparatively
regular figures, none more than thirty yards across," and "we are
steaming amongst floes of small area evidently broken by swell, and with
edges abraded by contact."[83]

We could not be far from the southern edge of the pack. Twenty-four hours
after raising steam we were still making good progress, checking
sometimes to carve our way through some obstacle. At last we were getting
a return for the precious coal expended. The sky was overcast, the
outlook from the masthead flat and dreary, but hour by hour it became
more obvious that we neared the threshold of the open sea. At 1 A.M. on
Friday, December 30 (lat. about 711/2 deg. S., noon observation 72 deg. 17' S.,
177 deg. 9' E.) Bowers steered through the last ice stream. Behind was some
400 miles of ice. Cape Crozier was 334 miles (geog.) ahead.

FOOTNOTES:

[40] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 6.

[41] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 7.

[42] Ibid. p. 9.

[43] Ibid. p. 8.

[44] Wilson in the _Discovery Natural History Reports._

[45] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 11-12.

[46] Wilson's Journal.

[47] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 14-15.

[48] Raper, _Practice of Navigation_, article 547.

[49] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 13.

[50] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 21-22.

[51] Ibid. pp. 24-25.

[52] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 2.

[53] My own diary.

[54] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 25.

[55] Ibid. p. 60.

[56] Wilson.

[57] Wilson, _Discovery Natural History Report_, vol. ii. part ii.
p. 38.

[58] Wilson's Journal.

[59] Levick, _Antarctic Penguins_, p. 83.

[60] Levick, _Antarctic Penguins_, p. 85.

[61] Wilson in the _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_,
vol. ii. part i. p. 44.

[62] _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. ii. part i.
Wilson, pp. 32, 33.

[63] Ibid. p. 33.

[64] _Antarctic Manual: Seals_, by Barrett-Hamilton, p. 216.

[65] Ibid. p. 217.

[66] _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. ii. part i.
by E. A. Wilson, p. 36.

[67] _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. ii. part i.
by E. A. Wilson.

[68] _Terra Nova Natural History Report, Cetacea_, vol. i. No. 3,
p. 111, by Lillie.

[69] _Terra Nova Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. i. No. 3,
_Cetacea_, by D. G. Lillie, p. 114.

[70] _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. ii. part i.
pp. 3-4, by E. A. Wilson.

[71] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 22.

[72] Wilson's Journal, _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 613.

[73] Minute plants.

[74] Killer whale.

[75] Officers' mess on the Terra Nova.

[76] Griffith Taylor in _South Polar Times_.

[77] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 35.

[78] Ibid. p. 39.

[79] Ibid. pp. 54, 55.

[80] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 56.

[81] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 73-75.

[82] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 62.

[83] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 68, 69.




CHAPTER IV

LAND

Beyond this flood a frozen continent
Lies dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice....
MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, II.


"They say it's going to blow like hell. Go and look at the glass." Thus
Titus Oates quietly to me a few hours before we left the pack.

I went and looked at the barograph and it made me feel sea-sick. Within a
few hours I was sick, _very_ sick; but we newcomers to the Antarctic had
yet to learn that we knew nothing about its barometer. Nothing very
terrible happened after all. When I got up to the bridge for the morning
watch we were in open water and it was blowing fresh. It freshened all
day, and by the evening it was blowing a southerly with a short choppy
North Sea swell, and very warm. By 4 A.M. the next morning there was a
big sea running and the dogs and ponies were having a bad time. Rennick
had the morning watch these days, and I was his humble midshipman.

At 5.45 we sighted what we thought was a berg on the port bow. About
three minutes later Rennick said, "There's a bit of pack," and I went
below and reported to Evans. It was very thick with driving snow and also
foggy, and before Evans got up to the bridge we were quite near the pack,
and amongst bits which had floated from it, one of which must have been
our berg. We took in the headsails as quickly as possible, these being
the only sails set, and nosed along dead slow to leeward under steam
alone. Gradually we could see either pack or the blink of it all along
our port and starboard beam, while gradually we felt our way down a big
patch of open water.

There was quite a meeting on the bridge, and it was decided to get well
in, and lie in open water under lee of the pack till the gale blew itself
out. "Under ordinary circumstances the safe course would have been to go
about and stand to the east. But in our case we must risk trouble to get
smoother water for the ponies. We passed a stream of ice over which the
sea was breaking heavily, and one realized the danger of being amongst
loose floes in such a sea. But soon we came to a compacter body of floes,
and running behind this we were agreeably surprised to find comparatively
smooth water. We ran on for a bit, then stopped and lay to."[84]

All that day we lay behind that pack, steaming slowly to leeward every
now and then, as the ice drifted down upon us. Towards night it began to
clear. It was New Year's Eve.

I turned in, thinking to wake in 1911. But I had not been long asleep
when I found Atkinson at my side. "Have you seen the land?" he said.
"Wrap your blankets round you, and go and see." And when I got up on deck
I could see nothing for a while. Then he said: "All the high lights are
snow lit up by the sun." And there they were: the most glorious peaks
appearing, as it were like satin, above the clouds, the only white in a
dark horizon. The first glimpse of Antarctic land, Sabine and the great
mountains of the Admiralty Range. They were 110 miles away. But

Icy mountains high on mountains pil'd
Seem to the shivering sailor from afar
Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of cloud;[85]

and, truth to tell, I went back to my warm bunk. At midnight a rowdy mob,
ringing the New Year in with the dinner-bell, burst into our Nursery. I
expected to be hauled out, but got off with a dig in the ribs from
Birdie Bowers.

In brilliant sunshine we coasted down Victoria Land. "To-night it is
absolutely calm, with glorious bright sunshine. Several people were
sunning themselves at 11 o'clock! Sitting on deck and reading."[86]

At 8.30 on Monday night, January 2, we sighted Erebus, 115 miles away.
The next morning most of us were on the yards furling sail. We were
heading for Cape Crozier, the northern face of Ross Island was open to
our fascinated gaze, and away to the east stretched the Barrier face
until it disappeared below the horizon. Adelie penguins and Killer whales
were abundant in the water through which we steamed.

I have seen Fuji, the most dainty and graceful of all mountains; and also
Kinchinjunga: only Michael Angelo among men could have conceived such
grandeur. But give me Erebus for my friend. Whoever made Erebus knew all
the charm of horizontal lines, and the lines of Erebus are for the most
part nearer the horizontal than the vertical. And so he is the most
restful mountain in the world, and I was glad when I knew that our hut
would lie at his feet. And always there floated from his crater the lazy
banner of his cloud of steam.

Now we had reached the Barrier face some five miles east of the point at
which it joins the basalt cliffs of Cape Crozier. We could see the great
pressure waves which had proved such an obstacle to travellers from the
Discovery to the Emperor penguin rookery. The Knoll was clear, but the
summit of Mount Terror was in the clouds. As for the Barrier we seemed to
have known it all our lives, it was so exactly like what we had imagined
it to be, and seen in the pictures and photographs.

Scott had a whaler launched, and we pulled in under the cliffs. There was
a considerable swell.

"We were to examine the possibilities of landing, but the swell was so
heavy in its break among the floating blocks of ice along the actual
beach and ice foot that a landing was out of the question. We should
have broken up the boat and have all been in the water together. But I
assure you it was tantalizing to me, for there about six feet above us on
a small dirty piece of the old bay ice about ten feet square one living
Emperor penguin chick was standing disconsolately stranded, and close by
stood one faithful old Emperor parent asleep. This young Emperor was
still in the down, a most interesting fact in the bird's life history at
which we had rightly guessed, but which no one had actually observed
before. It was in a stage never yet seen or collected, for the wings were
already quite clean of down and feathered as in the adult, also a line
down the breast was shed of down and part of the head. This bird would
have been a treasure to me, but we could not risk life for it, so it had
to remain where it was. It was a curious fact that with as much clean ice
to live on as they could have wished for, these destitute derelicts of a
flourishing colony, now gone north to sea on floating bay ice, should
have preferred to remain standing on the only piece of bay ice left, a
piece about ten feet square and now pressed up six feet above water
level, evidently wondering why it was so long in starting north with the
general exodus which must have taken place just a month ago. The whole
incident was most interesting and full of suggestion as to the slow
working of the brain of these queer people. Another point was most weird
to see, that on the _under_ side of this very dirty piece of sea-ice,
which was about two feet thick and which hung over the water as a sort of
cave, we could see the legs and lower halves of dead Emperor chicks
hanging through, and even in one place a dead adult. I hope to make a
picture of the whole quaint incident, for it was a corner crammed full of
Imperial history in the light of what we already knew, and it would
otherwise have been about as unintelligible as any group of animate or
inanimate nature could possibly have been. As it is, it throws more light
on the life history of this strangely primitive bird....

"We were joking in the boat as we rowed under these cliffs and saying it
would be a short-lived amusement to see the overhanging cliff part
company and fall on us. So we were glad to find that we were rowing back
to the ship and already 200 or 300 yards away from the place and in open
water when there was a noise like crackling thunder and a huge plunge
into the sea and a smother of rock dust like the smoke of an explosion,
and we realized that the very thing had happened which we had just been
talking about. Altogether it was a very exciting row, for before we got
on board we had the pleasure of seeing the ship shoved in so close to
these cliffs by a belt of heavy pack ice that to us it appeared a toss-up
whether she got out again or got forced in against the rocks. She had no
time or room to turn, and got clear by backing out through the belt of
pack stern first, getting heavy bumps under the counter and on the rudder
as she did so, for the ice was heavy and the swell considerable."[87]

Westward of Cape Crozier the sides of Mount Terror slope down to the sea,
forming a possible landing-place in calm weather. Here there is a large
Adelie penguin rookery in summer, and it was here that the Discovery left
a record of her movements tied to a post to guide the relieving ship the
following year. It was the return of a sledge party which tried to reach
this record from the Barrier that led to Vince's terrible death.[88] As
we coasted along we could see this post quite plainly, looking as new as
the day it was erected, and we know now that there is communication with
the Barrier behind, while this rookery itself is free from the blizzards