60 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [FEBRUARY 



took a lot of ice water, washing away the bulwarks we had re- 

 paired since the previous gale. 



The coal question was becoming serious; if this went on 

 much longer it looked as if we should not be able to land, as 

 Pennell had to keep enough coal to get back to New Zealand. 



On the evening of the i5th the wind eased a little, and by 

 10 A.M. on the i6th we raised steam and shaped course for Cape 

 Adare, which was now no miles to the S.W. It came on to 

 blow hard again from the S.E. in the afternoon, but we were 

 able nearly to lay our course under lower topsails; the snow 

 squalls were very thick, but luckily not much ice was sighted. 

 Late in the afternoon the weather cleared and we sighted the 

 mountainous coast of Victoria Land. During the night we got 

 among a lot of weathered bergs and loose pack, which had the 

 effect of smoothing the sea. 



At 4 A.M. on the iyth we were within about 2 miles of the 

 coast just east of Smith's Inlet. 



The land here was heavily glaciated, hardly a rock showing, 

 except some high cliffs ^and the Lyall Islands to the westward. 



Heavy pack lay to the west of us, so we had to work along 

 to the eastward, where the sea was fairly clear of ice. 



Some large floes lay close in under the cliffs, grinding up 

 against them in the heavy swell that was running. I was very 

 much disappointed at seeing no piedmont to work along on the 

 western sledge journey. The cliffs were several hundred feet 

 high except where the glaciers ran down, the front of these being 

 from 50 to 1 80 feet high. 



We worked along to the eastward, keeping as close as we 

 could, and keeping a good lookout for a possible landing. 



The scenery was magnificent. In the afternoon we entered 

 Robertson Bay and found we had a strong tide with us, which 

 was fortunate as the wind had freshened again from the S.S.E. 

 The scenery here was even wilder, the Admiralty Range tower- 

 ing over our heads and so steep that, except in the valleys, no 

 snow or ice was able to lodge, and bare rocks showed every- 

 where. 



Large glaciers filled all the valleys, but the gradient was 

 so steep that they were heavily crevassed from top to bottom. 



By 5 o'clock we were off the Dugdale Glacier, which runs 

 out in three long tongues, in places only 10 feet high. 



