22 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [December 



Truly the getting to our winter quarters is no light taslc; at 

 first the gales and heavy seas, and now this continuous fight with 

 the pack ice. 



8 P.M. — We are getting on with much bumping and occa- 

 sional ' hold ups.' 



Tuesday, December 13. — I was up most of the night. Never 

 have I experienced such rapid and complete changes of prospect. 

 Cheetham in the last dog watch was running the ship through 

 sludgy new ice, making with all sail set four or five knots. Bruce, 

 in the first, took over as we got into heavy ice again; but after 

 a severe tussle got through into better conditions. The ice of 

 yesterday loose with sludgy thin floes between. The middle 

 watch found us making for an open lead, the ice around hard 

 and heavy. We got through, and by sticking to the open water 

 and then to some recently frozen pools made good progress. At 

 the end of the middle watch trouble began again, and during this 

 and the first part of the morning we were wrestling with the worst 

 conditions we have met. Heavy hummocked bay ice, the floes 

 standing 7 or 8 feet out of water, and very deep below. It was 

 just such ice as we encountered at King Edward's Land in the 

 Discovery. I have never seen anything more formidable. The 

 last part of the morning watch was spent in a long recently frozen 

 lead or pool, and the ship went well ahead again. 



These changes sound tame enough, but they are a great strain 

 on one's nerves — one is for ever wondering whether one has 

 done right in trying to come down so far east, and having regard 

 to coal, what ought to be done under the circumstances. 



In the first watch came many alterations of opinion; time 

 and again it looks as though we ought to stop when it seemed 

 futile to be pushing and pushing without result; then would 

 come a stretch of easy going and the impression that all was 

 going very well with us. The fact of the matter is, it is difficult 

 not to imagine the conditions in which one finds oneself to be 

 more extensive than they are. It is wearing to have to face new 

 conditions every hour. This morning we met at breakfast in 

 great spirits; the ship has been boring along well for two hours, 

 then Cheetham suddenly ran her into a belt of the worst and we 

 were held up immediately. We can push back again, I think, 

 but meanwhile we have taken advantage of the conditions to 

 water ship. These big floes are very handy for that purpose at 



