232 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' Qan. 



camp. It is a good advertisement for teetotalers, as there is 

 no grog, and our strongest drinks are tea and cocoa, but of 

 course the most potent factor is the outdoor life with the hard 

 work and good food. Apart from the work, everyone agrees 

 that it has been the most splendid picnic they have ever had ; 

 the weather on the whole has been very fine and the air quite 

 mild. But it is certainly well that the conditions have been so 

 pleasant, for I hear on all sides that the work is hopeless. 

 This is a matter I must see for myself, however; for the 

 present I have decided that to-morrow, being New Year's day, 

 shall be a whole holiday ; this will be a treat for all, and will 

 give me time to think what shall be done next. 



^January i. — Last night I was irresistibly reminded of 

 being in a farmyard. Animals of various kinds were making 

 the queerest noises all about us. I lay awake in my own small 

 tent for a long while listening to these strange sounds. The 

 Weddell seal is a great musician, and can produce any note 

 from a shrill piping whistle to a deep moan, and between whiles 

 he grunts and gurgles and complains in the weirdest fashion. 

 As there were some hundreds of these animals on the ice, there 

 was a chorus of sounds like the tuning of many instruments. 

 To this was added the harsh, angry cawing of the skua gulls as 

 they quarrelled over their food, and now and again one of the 

 dogs would yap in his dreams, whilst from the main tent came 

 the more familiar snores of humanity. At first I missed one 

 sound from this Antarctic concert, but it came at last when the 

 squawk of a penguin was borne from afar on the still air ; then 

 the orchestra was completed. 



' Royds, Wilson, and I took a sledge and our lunch, and 

 went out to the ice-edge. It was farther than we expected, 

 and the sledge-meter showed close on ten miles before we came 

 to open water. Everything looked terribly stagnant ; a thick 

 pack, two or three miles across, hung close to the fast ice. 

 The day was beautiful, and one could not feel very depressed 

 in such weather ; but I cannot say that it is pleasing to think 

 that there is a soHd sheet of twenty miles between us and 

 freedom.' 



