SEARCH FOR DOUBTFUL ISLANDS 303 



on the English charts. Lieutenant Shackleton's vessel, 

 the Nimrod, Captain Davis, searched for both, but 

 found neither; Dougherty Island, however, is said 

 to have been twice sighted. The Frams course 

 was therefore laid for the Nimrod group. For a time 

 things went very well, but then we had a week of 

 northerly winds — that is, head winds — and when at last 

 we had a fair wind again, we were so far to the south- 

 east of them that there was no sense in sailing back to 

 the north-west to look for doubtful islands; it would 

 certainly have taken us weeks. Consequently, our 

 course was laid for Dougherty Island. We had 

 westerly winds for about two weeks, and were only two 

 or three days' sail from the island in question, when 

 suddenly we had a gale from the north-east, which 

 lasted for three days, and ended in a hurricane from the 

 same quarter. When this was over, we had come 

 according to dead reckoning about eighty nautical miles 

 to the south-east of the island; the heavy swell, which 

 lasted for days, made it out of the question to attempt 

 to go against it with the motor. We hardly had a 

 glimpse of sun or stars, and weeks passed without our 

 being able to get an observation, so that for that matter 

 we might easily be a degree or two out in our reckon- 

 ing. For the present, therefore, we must continue to 

 regard these islands as doubtful. 



Moral: Don't go on voyages of discovery, my friend; 

 you're no good at it ! 



