30 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION Pecember 



pack. We came through these making nearly 3 knots, but, 

 alas ! only in a direction which carried us a little east of south. 

 It was difficult to get from one tract to another, but the tracts 

 themselves were quite clear of ice. I noticed with rather a 

 sinking that the floes on either side of us were assuming gigantic 

 areas; one or two could not have been less than 2 or 3 miles 

 across. It seemed to point to very distant open water. 



But an observation which gave greater satisfaction was a 

 steady reduction in the thickness of the floes. At first they 

 were still much pressed up and screwed. One saw lines and 

 heaps of pressure dotted over the surface of the larger floes, 

 but it was evident from the upturned slopes that the floes had 

 been thin when these disturbances took place. 



At about 4.30 we came to a group of six or seven low 

 tabular bergs some 15 or 20 feet in height. It was such as 

 these that we saw in King Edward's Land, and they might very 

 well come from that region. Three of these were beautifully 

 uniform, with flat tops and straight perpendicular sides, and 

 others had overhanging cornices, and some sloped towards the 

 edges. 



No more open water was reported on the other side of the 

 bergs, and one wondered what would come next. The con- 

 ditions have proved a pleasing surprise. There are still large 

 floes on either side of us, but they are not much hummocked; 

 there are pools of water on their surface, and the lanes be- 

 tween are filled with light brash and only an occasional heavy 

 floe. The difference is wonderful. The heavy floes and gigantic 

 pressure ice struck one most alarmingly — it seemed impossible 

 that the ship could win her way through them, and led one to 

 imagine all sorts of possibilities, such as remaining to be drifted 

 north and freed later in the season, and the contrast now that 

 the ice all around is little more than 2 or 3 feet thick is an 

 immense relief. It seems like release from a horrid captivity. 

 Evans has twice suggested stopping and waiting to-day, and on 

 three occasions I have felt my own decision trembling in the 

 balance. If this condition holds I need not say how glad we 

 shall be that we doggedly pushed on in spite of the apparently 

 hopeless outlook. 



In any case, if it holds or not, it will be a great relief to 

 feel that there is this plain of negotiable ice behind one. 



