90 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Jan. 



winter, and which is broken up by the spring gales and drifts 

 to the north, forming a band across the sea on this meridian. 

 Later in the year, still drifting northward, it becomes scat- 

 tered, leaving for a brief season an open sea route to the 

 south. 



During our long stay in our winter quarters we were able 

 to observe to some extent the breaking-up and clearing of the 

 Ross Sea, which goes to form this line of pack, and I shall 

 refer to it in due course. In our passage through it we had 

 usually an overcast sky ; this affords the best condition for that 

 noticeable phenomenon the ' ice-blink,' the name given to the 

 white reflection thrown on the clouds by the snowy surface of 

 the pack. The polar voyager, when cruising in an open sea, 

 soon becomes familiar with the patchy white sky which indi- 

 cates the presence of ice long before it is visible from the 

 deck ; and in like manner when forcing his way through the 

 pack he looks eagerly for the dark sky shadows which surmount 

 the pools of open water, by entering which he may hope to 

 find his progress made easier. 



And now for several days we were destined to force our 

 way through grinding floes, making for the open pools, and 

 taking advantage of every favourable lead when the ice 

 loosened. The pack is far from being a desert ; Ufe abounds 

 in many forms. As we receded from the open sea the alba- 

 trosses and various oceanic petrels silently vanished, but their 

 place was taken by other and equally interesting birds ; around 

 us flew the blue -grey southern fulmar and the Antarctic petrel, 

 with brown barred wings and head, and a white breast ; now 

 and again a giant petrel would come lumbering by, an un- 

 wholesome scavenger, ready to gorge himself to repletion on 

 such carrion as might catch his vulture eye. These birds are 

 met with far and wide ; they vary much in colour from black 

 to the lighter shades of brown, whilst there are a very large 

 proportion of pure albinos. Occasionally a pugnacious skua 

 gull would flap past, pausing to make some less formidable 

 bird disgorge his hard-earned dinner. But the pleasantest and 

 most constant of our winged visitors was the small snow petrel, 



