1904] THE RUDDER DISABLED 279 



obliged to force our way through several loose streams, besides 

 a quantity of young ice, broken into tiny rounded pancakes 

 with frilled edges, caused by the chafe of the swell. In the 

 evening a breeze sprang up from the west, which enabled us to 

 make sail and afforded us much relief from the continual heavy 

 rolling. We had always thought that the ' Discovery ' was a 

 particularly lively ship, but we never appreciated it more than 

 on this day, when we found ourselves lurching from side to side 

 in the most uncomfortable fashion, while our consort followed 

 in our wake with scarcely a movement. 



After passing Coulman Island we were able to hug the 

 coast much closer than we had done when travelling south, 

 and it is worthy of note that, as we could see, both Tucker 

 Inlet and another unnamed one north of Cape Hallet are 

 much deeper than Ross supposed. Either would afford excel- 

 lent shelter to a ship. The two inlets curve in such a manner 

 that the mass of land on which Ross has placed the names of 

 Wheatstone, Hallet, and Cotter forms a peninsula. Mowbray 

 Bay is also a deep inlet. 



Early on the 24th we sighted the Possession Islands, and 

 later passed through the group. There are nine islands and 

 islets, very various in size and shape. That on which Ross 

 landed is the largest, and has a shelving beach on the western 

 side, though it is steep and precipitous on the eastern. The 

 smaller islets are mere rocks, but some are of very curious 

 shape. One is an almost perfect column more than 300 feet in 

 height ; another which has a similar but broader appearance 

 from the south, when viewed from the east or west is seen to 

 be pierced with two huge arches, the larger of which must be 

 nearly 1 50 feet in height. Altogether these islands are a curious 

 and interesting group. 



Directly after we had passed through the channels between 

 them the carpenter came to me with a serious face to call my 

 attention to the rudder, and I immediately went aft ' to inspect 

 it. I found that the solid oak rudder-head was completely 

 shattered, and that it was held together by little more than its 

 weight ; as the tiller was moved to the right or left the rudder 



