IN WINTER QUARTERS WITH CAPTAIN SCOTT 317 



As I was taking a photograph at the south-east corner, I heard 

 a queer noise which I traced to a seal hole about a yard long. 

 Inside this was a big seal trying to get out, but with little 

 success. I thought at first he was trying to rub away the ice 

 with his snout bristles, but he was really rasping right and 

 left with his upper teeth — making horizontal grooves in the 

 ice, and gradually wearing it away. We watched him for a 

 long time from a few feet distance, which did not seem to 





ttk 3 



CJL. 



worry him at all. It made my teeth ache to see the energetic 

 way he dug into the ice ; but after trying unsuccessfully to 

 photo him I left without seeing that he had made much 

 progress. These seals were now appearing in some numbers. 

 We counted fourteen near Tent Island, and eight just north 

 of Inaccessible Island, as we returned to the hut. 



On Sunday, 15th September, the third volume of S.P.T. 

 was published. It was in the same style as the preceding 

 copies. There was a dramatic account in blank verse of the 

 Terra Novas visit ,to South Trinidad, which I attributed to 

 Nelson (but was really by Mather). Meares wrote an ode 

 to Ponting in which my new word " to pont " (i.e. to spend 

 a deuce of a time posing in an uncomfortable position for a 

 photograph) was freely used. The Eastern Party was 

 enshrined in a " Glass House " this time, while Bill recorded 

 on his Egyptian tablets the wanderings of the Western trippers 

 during September. 



Bill's illustrations to " The Ladies' Page," a record of 

 Antarctic fashions, were some of the best he had done ; 

 especially Madame Bowers and Miss Jessie Debenham, coyly 

 proposing to Titus Oates ! 



