._sU 



FIRST WESTERN EXPEDITION 



179 



to sea-level. Here we saw a young skua practising its first 

 flights under the eye of two older birds. 



We camped in the snow amid troubled ice just off the 

 north-east corner of West Dailey Island. 



March 7, 1 9 1 1 . — We had a wakeful night, for the pressure 

 ice at 2.30 started groaning and creaking just under our heads. 

 We had a temperature of — 13 , and the night was quite dark, 

 though a glow was apparent to the south. In the morning a 

 cold wind from the south-east arose. 



I had to prospect across half a mile of bad surface, but 

 found a fair route for a single sledge before the packing was 

 concluded. The sledges stuck badly on sharp snags, and we 

 had to relay through tables and over snow-covered ledges and 

 crevices. Then we reached a glass-house surface, which was 

 fairly stable owing to the thick covering of snow. We held 

 along the west side of the broad tongue of bad ice and made 

 fair progress. It was pretty cold, however, and Debenham 

 suffered two frostbitten toes. 



About 4.30 I felt that we ought to be near the end of the 

 Pinnacle Ice as shown on the map. So we pulled towards it, 

 and reached high ridges rather suddenly. We camped here, 

 and Wright and I penetrated the ice for a mile, making for a 

 specially high pyramid. The surface was frightful, consisting 

 of big rough undulations much broken into snags and pyramids, 

 and crossed by frozen rivers with window-glass buried in snow- 

 drifts. We could see no difference in the distant east. It 

 was evident that we could not cross here, and must make still 

 farther north. We felt that the whole broad tongue had moved 

 north. It was necessary, therefore, to turn back and go rather 

 to the north-west. Hence we called this Keerweer Camp, after 

 the Cape Keerweer where the old Dutch captain retreated from 

 Australia. 



March 8, 191 1. — We moved off along the edge of the 

 pinnacle to the north. We did about one and a half miles, 

 and got bogged in bad country. A prospect ahead showed 

 that we had entered a sort of cul-de-sac. We could see frost 

 smoke rising all around us, and heard seals ; and, apparently, 

 orcas blowing and grunting, much closer than we could explain, 

 for we could see no water. Finally, we decided to keep to 

 the smoother ice, and so for the next mile or so were heading 

 for Butter Point, directly away from our destination at Hut 



