Читать книгу The Heart of the Antarctic, Volume 2. - E. H. Shackleton - Страница 15

"DEAR SIR,—The sledge-party which you have charge of consists of yourself, Douglas Mawson and Alistair Mackay.

"You will leave winter quarters on or about October 1, 1908. The main objects of your journey are to be as follows:

"(1) To take magnetic observations at every suitable point with a view of determining the dip and the position of the Magnetic Pole. If time permits, and your equipment and supplies are sufficient, you will try and reach the Magnetic Pole.

"(2) To make a general geological survey of the coast of Victoria Land. In connection with this work you wall not sacrifice the time that might be used to carry out the work noted in paragraph (1). It is unnecessary for me to describe or instruct you as to details re this work, as you know so much better than I do what is requisite.

"(3) I particularly wish you to be able to work at the geology of the Western Mountains, and for Mawson to spend at least one fortnight at Dry Valley to prospect for minerals of economic value on your return from the north, and for this work to be carried out satisfactorily you should return to Dry Valley not later than the first week of January. I do not wish to limit you to an exact date for return to Dry Valley if you think that by lengthening your stay up north you can reach the Magnetic Pole, but you must not delay, if time is short, on your way south again to do geological work. I consider that the thorough investigation of Dry Valley is of supreme importance.

"(4) The Nimrod is expected in the Sound about January 15, 1909. It is quite possible you may see her from the west. If so, you should try to attract attention by heliograph to winter quarters. You should choose the hours noon to 1 p.m. to flash your signal, and if seen at winter quarters the return signal will be flashed to you, and the Nimrod will steam across as far as possible to meet you and wait at the ice-edge. If the ship is not in, and if she is and your signals are not seen, you will take into account your supply of provisions and proceed either to Glacier Tongue or Hut Point to replenish if there is not a sufficient amount of provision at Butter Point for you.

"(5) Re Butter Point. I will have a depôt of at least fourteen days' food and oil cached there for you. If there is not enough in that supply you ought to return as mentioned in paragraph (4).

"(6) I shall leave instructions for the master of the Nimrod to proceed to the most accessible point at the west coast and there ship all your specimens. But before doing this, he must ship all the stores that are lying at winter quarters, and also keep in touch with the fast ice to the south on the lookout for the Southern Sledge-party. The Southern Party will not be expected before February 1, so if the ship arrives in good time you may have all your work done before our arrival from the south.

32. PICKING UP THE WESTERN PARTY

33. THE MOTOR-CAR IN THE GARAGE, AND MAIZE-CRUSHER ON THE RIGHT

"(7) If by February 1 after the arrival of the Nimrod, there is no evidence that your party has returned, the Nimrod all proceed north along the coast, keeping as close to the land as possible, on the lookout for a signal from you flashed by heliograph. The vessel will proceed very slowly. The ship will not go north of Cape Washington. This is a safeguard in event of any accident occurring to your party.

"(8) I have acquainted both Mawson and Mackay with the main facts of the proposed journey. In the event of any accident happening to you, Mawson is to be in charge of the party.

"(9) Trusting that you will have a successful journey and a safe return.

"I am yours faithfully,

"(Sgd.) ERNEST H. SHACKLETON,

"Commander."

"PROFESSOR DAVID,

"Cape Royds,

"Antarctic."

"CAPE ROYDS,

"BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, 1907.

"PROFESSOR DAVID.

"DEAR SIR,—If you reach the Magnetic Pole, you will hoist the Union Jack on the spot, and take possession of it on behalf of the above expedition for the British nation.

"When you are in the Western Mountains, please do the same at one place, taking possession of Victoria Land as part of the British Empire.

"If economic minerals are found, take possession of the area in the same way on my behalf as Commander of this expedition.

"Yours faithfully,

"(Sgd.) ERNEST H. SHACKLETON,

"Commander."

We had a farewell dinner that night, given in honour of the Southern Depôt Party who were about to start to lay out a depôt one hundred miles southerly from our winter quarters.

The following day, September 20, a strong south-easterly blizzard was blowing. In the afternoon the wind somewhat moderated, and there was less drift. Mackay had been making a sail for our journey to the Magnetic Pole, and we now tried the sail on two sledges lashed together on the ice at Backdoor Bay. We used the tent poles of one of the sledging-tents as a mast. The wind was blowing very strongly and carried off the two sledges with a weight on them of 300 lb., in addition to the weights of Mackay and myself, who were sitting on the sledges. We considered this a successful experiment.

The weather continued bad till the night of the 24th.

On September 25 we were up at 5.30 a.m., and found that the blizzard had subsided. Priestley, Day and I started in the motor-car, dragging behind us two sledges over the sea ice. One sledge, weighing altogether 606 lb. with its load, contained five of our fortnightly food-bags, six large tins of biscuits, and 60 lb. of oil. The other sledge, which with its load weighed about 250 lb., carried personal gear which we might have to use on the depôt laying trip in the event of being surprised by a blizzard. At first Day travelled on his first gear; he then found that the engine became heated, and we had to stop for it to cool down. He discovered while we were waiting that one of the cylinders was not firing. This he soon fixed up all right. He then remounted the car and he put her on to the second gear. With the increased power given by the repaired cylinder we now sped over the floe-ice at fourteen miles an hour, much to the admiration of the seals and penguins. When, however, we had travelled about ten miles from winter quarters, and were some five miles westerly from Tent Island, we encountered numerous sastrugi of softish snow, the car continually sticking fast in the ridges. A little low drift was flying over the ice surface, brought up by a gentle blizzard. We left the heavy sledge ten miles out, and then with only the light sledge to draw behind us, Day found that he was able to travel on his third gear at eighteen miles an hour. At this speed the sledge, whenever it took one of the snow sastrugi at right angles, leapt into the air like a flying fish and came down with a bump on the surface of the ice. As we had occasionally to make sharp turns in order to avoid sastrugi and lumps of ice, our sledge had one or two capsizes. Meanwhile, the blizzard was freshening, and we tore along in hopes of reaching our winter quarters before it became very violent. We had just reached Flagstaff Point, and were taking a turn in towards the shore opposite the penguin rookery when the blizzard wind caught the side of the sledge nearly broadside on, and capsized it heavily. So violent was the shock that the aluminium cooking apparatus was knocked out of its straps, and the blizzard wind immediately started trundling this metal cylinder over the smooth ice. Day stopped his car as soon as possible, Priestley and I jumped off, and immediately gave chase to the runaway cooker. Meanwhile, the cooker had fallen to pieces so to speak; the tray part came away from the big circular cover; the melter and the supports for the cooking-pot and for the main outer covering also came adrift as well as the cooking-pot itself. The lid of the last-mentioned fell off, and immediately dumped on to the ice the three pannikins and our three spoons. These articles raced one another over the smooth ice-surface in the direction of the open water of Ross Sea. The spoons were easily captured, as also were the pannikins, which, being conical in shape, could not be bowled by the wind in a straight line, but described arcs of circles. Priestley and I recovered also the cooking-pot, and with Brocklehurst's help (for he had run down to meet us) the aluminium supports, but the large snow melter, the main outer casing, and the tray kept revolving in front of us at a speed which was just sufficient to outclass our own most desperate efforts. Finally, when we were nearly upon them, they took a joyous leap over the low cliff of floe-ice and disappeared one after another most exasperatingly in the black waters of the Ross Sea.

This was a shrewd loss, as aluminium cookers were, of course, very scarce. Priestley and I returned disconsolate, and very much winded after our mile's run in vain.

The following day we had intended laying out our second depôt, but as some of the piston rings of the motor-car needed repair, we decided to postpone the departure until the day after. That afternoon, after the repairs had been completed, Day and Armytage went out for a little tobogganing before dinner. Late in the evening Armytage returned dragging slowly and painfully a sledge bearing the recumbent, though not inanimate form of Day. We crowded round to inquire what was the matter, and found that just when Armytage and Day were urging their wild career down a steep snow slope Day's foot had struck an unyielding block of kenyte lava, and the consequence had been very awkward for the foot. It was severely staved, so that he was quite unable to walk without assistance. As no one but Day could be trusted to drive the motor-car, this accident necessitated a further postponement of the laying of our second depôt.

On September 28 it was blowing. On the 29th the day was fairly fine, but Day's foot was not well enough for him to start in the motor-car.

On September 30 a mild blizzard commenced blowing, and on October 1, the day on which Lieutenant Shackleton had intended that we should start, it was still raging with increased force. That day was spent chiefly in nailing strips of tin, painted blue, on all the geological specimen boxes, and double-labelling them.

On October 2 the weather was still bad, so that we were unable to start. On October 3, the weather having cleared. Day, Priestley, Mackay and I started with two sledges to lay our second depôt. All went well for about eight miles out, then the carburetter played up. Possibly there was some dirt in the nozzle. Day took it all to pieces in the cold wind, and spent three-quarters of an hour in fixing it up. We then started off again gaily in good style. We crossed a large crack in the sea ice where there were numbers of seals and Emperor penguins. On the other side of this crack our wheels stuck fast in snow sastrugi. All hands got on to the spokes and started swinging the car backwards and forwards; when we got a good swing on, Day would suddenly snatch on the power and over we would go—that is, over one of the sastrugi—only to find, often, that we had just floundered into another one ahead. In performing one of these evolutions Priestley, who as usual, was working like a Trojan, got his hand rather badly damaged through its being jammed between the spokes of the car wheel and the framework. Almost immediately afterwards one of my fingers was nearly broken, through the same cause, the flesh being torn off one of my knuckles; and then Mackay seriously damaged his wrist in manipulating what Joyce called the "thumb-breaking" starter. Still we went floundering along over the sastrugi and ice cracks, Day every now and then getting out to lighten the car and limping alongside. At last we succeeded in reaching a spot amongst the snow sastrugi on the sea ice, fifteen miles distant from our winter quarters. Here we dumped the load intended for the Northern Party, and then Day had a hard struggle to extricate the car from the tangle of sastrugi and ice-cracks. At last, after two capsizes of the sledges, we got back into camp at 10 p.m., all thoroughly exhausted, all wounded and bandaged. Brocklehurst carried Day on his back for about a quarter of a mile from where we left the car up to our winter quarters. So thoroughly exhausted were we, that we had to take a day's rest on October 4, before making our final start.

34. THE START OF A BLIZZARD FROM THE SOUTH; DRIFT

COMING ROUND MOUNT EREBUS

The following are the details respectively of our permanent load and equipment and of our consumable load (food and oil) when we did eventually start:

NORTHERN PARTY'S PERMANENT LOAD
			Weight.
			Lb.	Oz.
2 11-ft. sledges		. . .	120	0
Tent, poles and floorcloth		. . .	30	0
Shovel		. . .	6	0
Primus and cooker		. . .	20	0
Three-man sleeping bag		. . .	26	0
3 dozen plates		. . .	3	0
¼-plate camera and case		. . .	4	13
Legs of camera		. . .	1	14
Lloyd Creak dip circle		. . .	23	0
Legs for dip circle>		. . .	7	0
Spirit for Primus stove		. . .	9	0
1 ready bottle for spirit		. . .	0	8
Sail and yard		. . .	11	0
Venesta board for table Centimetre rule Horn protractor Pencils "Hints to Travellers" and Nautical Almanac	} } } } } }	. . .	1	10
3-inch, theodolite and case		. . .	9	0
Legs of theodolite		. . .	5	4
Field-glasses		. . .	1	13
3 ice axes, 3 lb. each		. . .	9	0
Rucksack and 60 ft. Alpine rope		. . .	6	0
Haversack, hammer and chisel		. . .	3	0
Aneroid 2 prismatic compasses	] ]	. . .	3	0
2 pairs of sledge thermometers in cases 2 low-temperature thermometers	} }	. . .	0	12
1 hypsometer in case		. . .	1	0
Labels and small bags for specimens		. . .	1	0
Repair kit		. . .	2	0
Copper wire		. . .	0	4
Cod-line		. . .	1	0
Leather for repairs		. . .	2	0
1 pair shooting-boots for depot at Butter Point		. . .	3	8
1 pair ski-boots (Mawson)		. . .	2	8
1 pair ski-boots (David)		. . .	2	8
3 pairs ski-boots		. . .	12	0
9 pairs finnesko, 2¼ lb. each		. . .	20	4
Charts and tin case		. . .	1	0
Dram case of paper		. . .	1	0
30 lb. of personal gear 6 lb. of bags	} }	. . .	36	0
Prickers, nipples, and washers for Primus		. . .	0	8
3 hanks sennegrass		. . .	4	8
3 bags for drying sennegrass		. . .	0	8
Medical bag		. . .	5	0
Depot flags, jack, and poles		. . .	4	0
Sledge harness
Sledge ropes and toggles
Small set of tools
Books: Field notebooks. "Magnetic Memoir of Discovery Expedition." Sketch-book.

NORTHERN PARTY'S CONSUMABLE LOAD
		Lb.	Oz.
Plasmon biscuit: 1 lb. per man per day = 3 lb. per day. 93 days × 3 = 279 lb. Substitute for oatmeal, 1 lb. 3 oz. for 3 men per week × 13 = 14 lb. 10 oz.	=	294	0
Pemmican: 7.5 oz. per man per day × 3 × 93 = 2092 oz.	=	131	0
Emergency rations (checked by Marshall): l½ oz. per man per day × 3 × 93 = 418½ oz.	=	26	0
Sugar (lumps): 3.8 oz. per man per day × 3 × 93	=	70	0
Tea (twice a day): a little less than half a tin per week	=	9	0
Rowntree's Sweet Chocolate: 8 oz. per man per week = normal allowance. 4½ "do.= substitute for honey. 12½ oz.do. 12½ × 3 × 13 = 487 oz.	=	32	0
Cocoa: 14½ oz. for three men per week (once a day for dinner). 14½ × 13 = 188 oz. Out of this plasmon cocoa available for 6 weeks.	=	12	0
Cheese: 2 oz. per man per day, 3 days per week = 18 oz. per week. 18 oz. × 13 = 239 oz.	=	15	0
Plasmon and dried milk	=	17	7
Salt: 2 oz. per week for 2 men = 4 oz. per week × 13 = 52 oz.	=	3	4
Paraffin oil in 10-lb. tins	=	100	0
		——	——
		709	lb.

C. A BLIZZARD ON THE BARRIER

October 4 was a Sunday, and after the morning service we took the ponies out for exercise. In the evening the gramophone discoursed appropriate music, such as "We parted on the Shore", "I and my true love will never meet again by the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond", concluding with the universal favourite, "Lead, Kindly Light".

Meanwhile, Mackay had his damaged wrist attended to, and I put the question to him as to whether or not he was prepared to undertake the long journey to the Magnetic Pole under the circumstances. He said that he was quite ready, provided Mawson and I did not object to his going with his wrist damaged and in a sling. We raised no objection, and so the matter was settled. All that night Mawson and I were occupied in writing final letters, and packing little odds and ends.

The following morning, October 5, after an early breakfast, we prepared for the final start. It was quite wonderful what a lot of things had been forgotten until this last moment. The sledges were dragged down, from our hut to the edge of the sea ice at the Penguin Rookery, a distance of a little over a quarter of a mile. Day was there with the motor-car, ready for the start. Every now and then some one of the pilgrims would remember that he had left something very important behind at the hut, and would go running back for it. These odd belongings had to be tied with bits of string on to the second sledge which we were going to take with us on our northern journey, consequently, by degrees, this sledge became hung over with boots, crampons, and all sorts of what Day called "gadgets". Murray, Brocklehurst and Armytage came down on the ice to bid us a final farewell. Brocklehurst took a photograph of us just before we started, then Day, Priestley, Roberts, Mackay, Mawson and I got aboard, some on the motor-car, some on the sledges. Those remaining behind gave us three cheers, Day turned on the power and away we went. A light wind was blowing from the south-east at the time of our start, bringing a little snow with it and another blizzard seemed impending.

After travelling a little over two miles, just beyond Cape Barne, the snow had become so thick that the coastline was almost entirely hidden from our view. Under these circumstances I did not think it prudent to take the motor-car further, so Mackay, Mawson and I bid adieu to our good friends. Strapping on our harness we toggled on to the sledge rope, and with a one, two, three, and away, pulled off into the thick falling snow, which in a few minutes blotted out all view of the motor-car in our rear. As we slowly trudged along the signs of an approaching blizzard became more pronounced and we bore somewhat to our left so as to have Inaccessible Island as a lee under which to run for shelter, but after a time, as the threatened blizzard did not come up, we slewed our sledge more to the right, away from Inaccessible Island, heading up for our ten-mile depôt. At last, towards evening Mackay sighted the black flag over the depôt about a mile distant.

We reached the depôt about 7 p.m. and got up our tent. A fairly strong wind was still blowing from the south-east, raising low drift. We slept that night on the floe-ice, with about three hundred fathoms of water under our pillow.

The following morning, October 6, we started our relay work. We dragged the Christmas Tree sledge on first, as we were specially liable to lose parcels off it, for a distance of from one-third to half a mile. Then we returned and fetched up what we called the Plum Duff sledge, chiefly laden with our provisions. The light was dull, and a certain amount of soft, newly-fallen snow made the sledging heavy. The weather may be described as thick, with snow falling at intervals. During the afternoon it cleared somewhat and the Western Mountains came into view at about 2 p.m. This was fortunate for us, as it enabled us later on to sight the flag over our fifteen-mile depôt. We camped that night amongst screw pack-ice within less than a mile of this depôt.

The following day, October 7, was beautifully fine and calm. We started about 9 a.m. and sledged over pressure ice ridges and snow sastrugi, reaching our fifteen-mile depôt in three-quarters of an hour. Here we camped and repacked our sledges. We took the wholemeal plasmon biscuits out of two of the biscuit tins and packed them into canvas bags. This saved us a weight of about 8 lb.

We started again in the afternoon, relaying with the two sledges. The sledging again was heavy on account of the fresh, soft snow, and small sastrugi. We had a glorious view of the Western Mountains, crimsoned in the light of the setting sun. We camped that night close to a seal hole which belonged to a fine specimen of Weddell seal. We were somewhat disturbed that night by the snorting and whistling of the seals as they came up for their blows. Evidently this seal hole was a syndicate affair. The sounds at times seemed right under our tent.

October 8 was a fine, clear day, with a beautiful sunset, and a magnificent mirage, in the direction of Beaufort Island. To the north of us, the curious hills, called by Captain Scott the "Stranded Moraines", were now beginning to show out very plainly in the direction in which we were travelling.

On the morning of October 9 we got under way soon after eight o'clock. It was a lovely, calm day but cold, the thermometer registering 30 Fahr. at 8 p.m. The surface was fairly good for sledging, but in places we came on patches of soft snow, and a small, lumpy structure of the ice-surface, resembling a newly raked garden bed, evidently due to the thawing down and refreezing of "ice flowers". This made travelling very heavy. The "Stranded Moraines" now showed up very clearly, and Butter Point itself became visible.

The following day, Saturday, October 10, we were awakened by the chatter of some Emperor penguins who had marched down on our tent during the night to investigate us. The sounds may be described as something between the cackle of a goose and the chortle of a kookaburra. On peeping out of the Burberry spout of our tent I saw four standing by the sledges. They were much interested at the sight of me, and the conversation between them became lively. They evidently took us for penguins of an inferior type, and the tent for our nest. They watched, and took careful note of all our doings, and gave us a good send-off when we started about 8.30 a.m.

On our journey that morning we passed close by a large bull seal of the Weddell species. A little further on we noticed a curious dark object on the ice in the distance, and on coming up to it found that it was a dead Weddell seal with its head, neck, and shoulders firmly frozen into the ice. Evidently it had stuck fast in a seal hole in the ice in trying to get down to the sea-water.

35. MARSTON AND MURRAY AT THE DOOR OF THE HUT

36. DAISY'S THIRD LITTER AT THE WINTER QUARTERS

37. THE MOTOR HAULING STORES FOR A DEPOT

The sky was overcast, and light snow began to fall in the afternoon. A little later a mild blizzard sprang up from the south-east; we thought this a favourable opportunity for testing the sailing qualities of our sledges, and so made sail on the Plum Duff sledge. As Mackay put it, we "brought her to try with main course". As the strength of the blizzard increased, we found that we could draw both sledges simultaneously, which was, of course, a great saving in labour. We were tempted to carry on in the increasing strength of the blizzard rather longer than was wise, and consequently, when at last we decided that we must camp, had great difficulty in getting the tent up. We slipped the tent over the poles placed close to the ground in the lee of a sledge. While two of us raised the poles, the third shovelled snow on to the skirt of the tent, which we pulled out little by little, until it was finally spread to its full dimensions. We were glad to turn in and escape from the biting blast and drifting snow.

The following day, Sunday, October 11, a violent blizzard was still blowing, and we lay in our sleeping-bag until past noon, by which time the snow had drifted high upon the door side of our tent. As this drift was pressing heavily on our feet and cramping us, I got up and dug it away. The cooker and Primus were then brought in and we all got up and had some hoosh and tea. The temperature, as usually happens in a blizzard, had now risen considerably, being 8.5° Fahr. at 1.30 p.m. The copper wire on our sledges was polished and burnished by the prolonged blast against it of tiny ice crystals, and the surface of the sea ice was also brightly polished in places. As it was still blowing we remained in our sleeping-bag for the rest of that day as well as the succeeding night.

When we rose at about 2 a.m. on Monday, October 12, the blizzard was over. We found very heavy snowdrifts on the lee side of our sledges, and it took us a considerable time to dig these away and get the hard snow raked out of all the chinks and crannies among the packages on the sledges. We made a start about 4 a.m., and all that day meandered amongst broken pack-ice. It was evident that the south-east blizzards drive large belts of broken floe-ice in this direction across McMurdo Sound to the western shore. The fractured masses of sea ice, inclined at all angles to the horizontal, are frozen in later, as the cold of winter becomes more intense, and of course, constitute a very difficult surface for sledging.

In order to make up for the time we had lost in our sleeping-bags during the blizzard, we travelled altogether fourteen hours, and succeeded in doing about six statute miles, that is, eighteen miles of relay work, and all felt much exhausted when we turned in that evening. As a result of this we did not wake until after 8 a.m next morning.

We were now only about two miles from Butter Point. We got under way at 10 a.m., and a few hours later camped at the foot of a low ice cliff, about 600 yards south-south-east of Butter Point. Butter Point is merely an angle in this low ice cliff near the junction of the Ferrar Glacier valley with the main shore of Victoria Land. This cliff was from fifteen to twenty feet in height, and formed of crevassed glacier ice. It was covered by a hard snow crust, which every now and then gave away and let one down for a foot or so. This glacier ice was not part of the main Ferrar Glacier, but appeared to be simply a local piedmont glacier stretching along for some considerable distance between the base of the coast range and the sea ice, past the "Stranded Moraines", until still further south it became confluent with that Mr. H. G. Ferrar has described as the "pinnacled ice". It was evident that this piedmont ice was firmly attached to the land, as it was separated from the sea ice, by a well-marked tide-crack. With the help of our ice axes we crossed over this crack and got up the little ice cliff on to the glacier ice, and selected there a suitable spot for our depôt.

According to arrangements with Lieutenant Shackleton we were to leave a depôt flag at Butter Point with a letter giving an account of our doings, and stating approximately by what date we hoped to return there. But the progress of our journey had been so much slower than we had originally anticipated that we decided before reaching Butter Point that it would be imperatively necessary, in order to make the Magnetic Pole in the time available, to lighten the load on our sledges by leaving a portion of our equipment and food.

During the latter part of this day Mawson and Mackay were busy making a mast and boom for the second sledge, it being our intention to use the tent floorcloth as a sail. Meanwhile I sorted out the material to be left at the depôt.

The following day, Wednesday, October 14, we spent the morning in resorting the loads on our sledges. We depôted two tins of wholemeal plasmon biscuits, each weighing about 27 lb., also Mackay's mountaineering nail boots, and my spare headgear material and mits. Altogether we lightened the load by about 70 lb. We sunk the two full tins of biscuits and a tin containing boots, &c., a short distance in the glacier ice to prevent the blizzards blowing them away. We then lashed to the tins a short bamboo flagpole, carrying one of our black depôt flags, and securely fastened to its base one of our empty airtight milk tins, in which we])laced our letters. In these letters for Lieutenant Shackleton and R. E. Priestley, respectively, I stated that in consequence of our late start from Cape Royds, and also on account of the comparative slowness of our progress thence to Butter Point, it was obvious that we could not return to Butter Point until January 12, at the earliest, instead of the first week of January, as was originally anticipated. We ascertained months later that this little depôt survived the blizzards, and that Armytage, Priestley and Brocklehurst had no difficulty in finding it, and that they read our letters.

Leaving the depôt about 9 a.m. on October 14, we started sledging across New Harbour in the direction of Cape Bernacchi. In the afternoon a light southerly wind sprang up bringing a little snow with it, the fall lasting from about 12.30 to 2.30 p.m. We steered in the direction of what appeared to us to be an uncharted island. On arriving at it, however, we discovered that it was a time iceberg, formed of hard blue glacier ice with a conspicuous black band near its summit formed of fine dark gravel. The iceberg was about a quarter of a mile in length, and thirty to forty feet high. In addition to the coarser bands of gravel there was a great quantity of dust, and fine dust bands, near the surface of the berg. This dust absorbing the heat of the sun had thawed its way deep down into the berg, thus forming numerous dust wells and dust grooves. There were several large cracks in the sea ice in the neighbourhood of this iceberg, and having taken the bearing of the trend of these by a compass they helped us to keep direction when the air was thick 'with falling snow.

The following day, October 15, was beautifully fine and calm; the sky was slightly cloudy with long belts of cirrus-stratus and alto-stratus. Erebus, now over fifty miles distant, was cloud capped. We had a glorious view up the magnificent valley of the Ferrar Glacier; the spurless hills on either side of the valley, strongly faceted in a direction parallel to each side of the valley, spoke eloquently of intense abrasive glacial action in the immediate geological past. The hills in the foreground, formed of gneissic granite, were of a rich chocolate brown to warm sepia hue, fading in the distance to exquisite tints of reddish purple and violet. Towards evening we had a wonderful vision of several large icebergs close ahead of us; it seemed as though they were only a mile or so distant, as one could see clearly the re-entering angles and bright reflected sides of the bergs lit up in the rays of the setting sun. Suddenly, as if by magic, they all vanished. They had been momentarily conjured up to our view by a wonderful mirage. In the departing rays of the setting sun Mount Erebus and Mount Bird glowed with a glorious golden light. This was one of the most beautiful days we experienced during the whole of our journey. The cold was now less severe than it had been, the temperature being 9.5° Fahr. at 8 p.m.

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