i9"l A HIGH TIDE 147 



of frost in the nights. The weather was gloomy, the sun rarely 

 appearing till it had sunk below the level of the pall of stratus. 



We had an eventful lunch just before reaching our depot. 

 We pitched the tent and fastened the door to keep out the 

 wind. I was sitting next the door with my precious lumps of 

 sugar on the floor cloth when I noticed that water was creeping 

 into the tent. In a few seconds it was several inches deep. 

 We bolted our raisins, pocketed the lumps of butter and sugar 

 and rushed out with the sleeping-bags. There was a small lake 

 all round us, rapidly rising round sledge and tent. The water 

 was rushing out of a crack one hundred yards below us, probably 

 driven back by a high tide. We. had quite a pilgrimage to get 

 our sledge packed again, having to walk round the newly formed 

 bay. 



The avenue petered out here, after furnishing us with a mag- 

 nificent highway for twenty miles. We had some pretty rough 

 work for the next mile or so, but reached our depot safely on 

 the evening of the 5th. We had a fine feed of seal liver fried 

 in blubber. Debenham was cook and P.O. Evlns Jwas frankly 

 sceptical as to the result. He took his whack gingerly, but 

 handsomely acknowledged it tasted much better than in Dis- 

 covery days. We turned over the fry with my bowie knife and 

 found that safety-pins made excellent forks. 



On the 6th we started across the head of McMurdo Sound 

 to reach Ross Island. We had now two sledges to pull, but 

 the surface was good and we soon approached the Dailey Isles. 

 We made an interesting discovery here. All around were heaps 

 of large sponges a foot in diameter buried in snow and ice. 

 Among the long spicules we found Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, Ser- 

 pulas, mollusca, and a fine ' solitary ' coral. 



That evening we climbed West Dailey Isle a mass of vol- 

 canic lava 600 feet high to try to see the extent of open water. 

 The head of McMurdo Sound is occupied by a broad wedge of 

 pinnacle ice about twelve miles wide at its base. It was neces- 

 sary either to cross this or go right round it. We had had such 

 heavy work with one light sledge that the latter route seemed 

 the best, even though it was more than twice the distance. 



For the next two days we marched north almost the oppo- 

 site direction from our destination at Hut Point. At noon halt 

 we found that Debenham had two toes frostbitten owing to 



