302 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' 



of the ice in the main pack frequently changes, giving the 

 impression that a quantity of ice of a previous season is caught 

 when the sea freezes over ; but none of the floes met with is 

 formidable — all are more or less rotten and decayed. 



The exceptional ice conditions of the summer of 1902-3 

 seem to have arisen from causes commencing at a very early 

 date in the winter of 1902. What must be considered an 

 abnormal succession of southerly gales again and again broke 

 up the ice in McMurdo Sound, and even late in the winter 

 there was open water within a few miles of the ' Discovery.' 

 The continual formation of fresh sheets of ice must have tended 

 to congestion, which the exceptionally fine weather conditions 

 of December and January failed to relieve, so that the greater 

 part of the Ross Sea remained filled with ice ; and not only 

 had the * Morning ' great difficulty in getting to the south, but 

 the sea was never sufficiently open to admit of the swell on 

 which we depended to break up the ice in McMurdo Sound 

 and release the * Discovery.' 



In connection with this fact it is interesting to note that, 

 though the main pack usually drifts to the north early, there is 

 an eddy in McMurdo Sound in which a mass of ice is 

 detained throughout December and January. At the end of 

 January in 1902 and 1904, this mass was suddenly carried to 

 the north, but it did not disappear until nearly a month later 

 in 1903. When this occurred there was a noticeable change in 

 the drift of the surface waters through the Sound. 



Continuing to drift northward, the main pack is dissipated 

 by the beginning of February, and during this month a ship, 

 by coming directly south on the 178th meridian, could reach 

 the Great Barrier without encountering any pack-ice. It is 

 strange to think that there may be a season in the year when 

 the enterprising tourist steamer may show its passengers the 

 lofty smoke-capped form of Mount Erebus, as easily as it now 

 does the fine scenery of Spitzbergen. 



The sea-ice met with on the coast of Victoria Land is of a 

 different character from that found in the main pack. It is 

 very solid and hard, comparatively free from snow, and, except 



