I9I0] BANKED FIRES .37 



Preparations are now being made for Christmas festivities. 

 It is curious to think that we have already passed the longest 

 day in the southern year. 



Saw a whale this morning — estimated 25 to 30 feet. Wilson 

 thinks a new species. Find Adelie penguins in batches of twenty 

 or so. Do not remember having seen so many together in the 

 pack. 



After 7mdnight, December 23. — Steam was reported ready 

 at 1 1 P.M. After some pushing to and fro we wriggled out 

 of our ice prison and followed a lead to opener waters. 



We have come into a region where the open water exceeds 

 the ice; the former lies in great irregular pools 3 or 4 miles 

 or more across and connecting with many leads. The latter, and 

 the fact is puzzling, still contain floes of enormous dimensions; 

 we have just passed one which is at least 2 miles in diameter. 

 In such a scattered sea we cannot go direct, but often have to 

 make longish detours; but on the whole in calm water and with 

 a favouring wind we make good progress. With the sea even 

 as open as we find it here it is astonishing to find the floes so 

 large, and clearly there cannot be a southerly swell. The floes 

 have water pools as described this afternoon, and none average 

 more than 2 feet in thickness. We have two or three bergs in 

 sight. 



Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve. — 69° i' S., 178° 29' 

 W. S. 22 E. 29'; C. Crozier 551'. Alas! alas! at 7 a.m. this 

 morning we were brought up with a solid sheet of pack extend- 

 ing in all directions, save that from which we had come. I must 

 honestly own that I turned in at three thinking we had come to 

 the end of our troubles; I had a suspicion of anxiety when I 

 thought of the size of the floes, but I didn't for a moment sus- 

 pect we should get into thick pack again behind those great 

 sheets of open water. 



All went well till four, when the white wall again appeared 

 ahead — at five all leads ended and we entered the pack; at seven 

 we were close up to an immense composite floe, about as big as 

 any we've seen. She wouldn't skirt the edge of this and she 

 wouldn't go through it. There was nothing to do but to stop 

 and bank fires. How do we stand? — Any day or hour the floes 

 may open up, leaving a road to further open water to the south, 

 but there is no guarantee that one would not be hung up again 



