i9iol LIFE IN THE PACK 45 



irritating skin affection which is causing its hair to fall out in 

 great quantities. I think a day or so in the open will help 

 matters; one or two of the other ponies under the forecastle 

 are also in poor condition, but none so bad as this one. Oates 

 is unremitting in his attention and care of the animals, but I 

 don't think he quite realises that whilst in the pack the ship must 

 remain steady and that, therefore, a certain limited scope for 

 movement and exercise is afforded by the open deck on which 

 the sick animal now stands. 



If we can get through the ice in the coming effort we may 

 get all the ponies through safely, but there would be no great 

 cause for surprise if we lost two or three more. 



These animals are now the great consideration, balanced as 

 they are against the coal expenditure. 



This morning a number of penguins were diving for food 

 around and under the sriip. It is the first time they have come 

 so close to the ship in the pack, and there can be little doubt that 

 the absence of motion of the propeller has made them bold. 



The Adelie penguin on land or ice is almost wholly ludicrous. 

 Whether sleeping, quarrelling, or playing, whether curious, 

 frightened, or angry, its interest is continuously humorous, but 

 the Adelie penguin in the water is another thing; as it darts to 

 and fro a fathom or two below the surface, as it leaps porpoise- 

 like into the air or swims skimmingly over the rippling surface 

 of a pool, it excites nothing but admiration. Its speed probably 

 appears greater than it is, but the ability to twist and turn and 

 the general control of movement is both beautiful and wonderful. 



As one looks across the barren stretches of the pack, it is 

 sometimes difficult to realise what teeming life exists immedi- 

 ately beneath its surface. 



A tow-net is filled with diatoms in a very short space of 

 time, showing that the floating plant life is many times richer 

 than that of temperate or tropic seas. These diatoms mostly 

 consist of three or four well-known species. Feeding on these 

 diatoms are countless thousands of small shrimps (Euphausia) ; 

 they can be seen swimming at the edge of every floe and wash- 

 ing about on the overturned pieces. In turn they afford food 

 for creatures great and small : the crab-eater or white seal, the 

 penguins, the Antarctic and snowy petrel, and an unknown num- 

 ber of fish. 



