SLOW PROGRESS 343 



us that we were somewhat farther to the east than we 

 had reckoned. On the evening of December 31 the fog 

 Hfted for a wliile, and we saw nothing but ice all round. 

 Our course was then set due south. We had come 

 right down in lat. 69' 5° S., and I hoped soon to be 

 clear altogether; in 1910 we got out of the ice in 70° S., 

 and were then in the same longitude as now. 



Now, indeed, our progress began to be slow, and the 

 old year went out in a far from pleasant fashion. The 

 fog was so thick that I may safely say we did not see 

 more than fifty yards from the ship, whereas we ought 

 to have had the midnight sun ; ice and snow-sludge were 

 so thick that at times we lay still. The wind had, 

 unfortunately, fallen off, but we still had a little 

 breeze from the north, so that both sails and engine 

 could be used. We went simply at haphazard; now 

 and then we were lucky enough to come into great 

 open channels and even lakes, but then the ice closed 

 again absolutely tight. It could hardly be called real ice, 

 however, but was rather a snow-sludge, about two feet 

 thick, and as tough as dough; it looked is if it had all 

 just been broken off a single thick mass. The floes lay 

 close together, and we could see how one floe fitted 

 into the other. The ice remained more or less close 

 until we were right down in lat. 73° S. and long. 179° 

 W.; the last part of it was old drift-ice. 



From here to the Bay of Whales we saw a few 

 scattered streams of floes and some icebergs. 



