152 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Feb. 



CHAPTER VI 



FINDING WINTER QUARTERS : A FATAL ACCIDENT 



In McMurdo Sound — A Glacier Tongue — Landing South of Erebus — 

 Selection of Winter Quarters — Prospects — Difficulty in Maintaining our 

 Station — Erection of Huts— Amusements— A Trip to White Island — 

 Sledge Party to the Cape Crozier Record— Accident to Returning Sledge 

 Party — Fatal Result to poor Vince — Results of Search Parties— Frost- 

 bites — Wonderful Escape of Hare — Visit to Danger Slope. 



Beholde I see the haven near at hand 

 To which I mean my wearie course to bend ; 

 Vere the main sheet and bear up to the land 

 The which afore is fairly to be ken'd. 



Spenser : Faerie Queene. 



In remembering the extraordinary distinctness with which we 

 had been able to see distant mountains in fine weather, owing 

 to the clearness of the atmosphere, the reader may have been 

 led to suppose that under these conditions the * crow's-nest ' 

 of the ' Discovery ' would have commanded a very extensive 

 view of the sea surface. This was by no means the case : 

 unless indicated by an ice-blink, the presence of pack could 

 never be detected at more than four or five miles even from 

 that elevated position, and it was often our lot to be steaming 

 towards an apparently open sea, and in less than an hour to 

 find ourselves surrounded by ice-floes. Similarly, it was not 

 possible when steering through the pack to see the open-water 

 leads, or to extend the prospective track to a greater distance 

 than two or three miles. 



It can therefore be understood that although on the morning 

 of February 8 we were steaming across McMurdo Sound in 



