DARKER NIGHTS 195 



be had. Even if we might now consider that we had 

 done with the principal mass of Antarctic ice, we still 

 had to reckon with its disagreeable outposts — the ice- 

 bergs. It has already been remarked that a practised 

 look-out man can see the blink of one of the larger 

 bergs a long way off in the dark, but when it is a 

 question of one of the smaller masses of ice, of which 

 only an inconsiderable part rises above the surface, 

 there is no such brightness, and therefore no warning. 

 A little lump like this is just as dangerous as a big 

 berg; you run the same risks in a possible collision 

 of knocking a hole in the bows or carrying away the 

 rigging. In these transitional regions, where the tem- 

 perature of the water is always very low, the ther- 

 mometer is a very doubtful guide. 



The waters in which we were sailing are not yet 

 so well known as to exclude the possibility of meeting 

 with land. Captain Colbeck, who commanded one of 

 the relief ships sent south during Scott's first expedi- 

 tion, came quite unexpectedly upon a little island to 

 the east of Cape Adare; this island was afterwards 

 named after Captain Scott. When Captain Colbeck 

 made his discovery, he was about on the course that 

 has usually been taken by ships whose destination was 

 within the limits of Ross Sea. There is still a possi- 

 bility that in going out of one's course, voluntarily or 

 involuntarily; one may find more groups of islands in 

 that part. 



