i9o 4 ] SKIRTING THE PACK 285 



paratively open sea to leeward. The sky has become very 

 overcast and the weather threatening, but the sea is smooth.' • 



''February 27. — We are skirting this wretched pack; I 

 cannot think what brings it so far to the east ; last night we 

 came through several streams, and were forced to turn to the 

 south-east; but this morning we straightened up again, and 

 are now going nearly due north. 



1 Before noon the wind gradually died away, and we now 

 have a brisk and increasing breeze from the south. The glass, 

 which had been steadily falling since noon yesterday, is slowly 

 rising ; we have passed away from this region of bergs, but the 

 strong ice-blink is always on our port hand. If in no other 

 way, we can guess our proximity to the pack-ice by the con- 

 stant presence of the charming little snow petrels ; they never 

 seem to wander far from the pack. Last night we had a flight 

 of Antarctic petrels around the ship ; they came and went in 

 the gloom in very ghostly fashion, and this morning there were 

 still a number about us. This morning brought more of the 

 bird friends that we have missed for so long, and we saw again 

 the fulmar petrel, the small prion, and a sooty albatross ; these 

 indicate, without doubt, a clear sea to the north. I wish one 

 could say the same of the west. 



1 Our poor dogs are made very miserable by the wet. Born 

 in the South, they have absolutely no experience of damp con- 

 ditions, and at first they were much alarmed by them ; they 

 show the same horror of a wet deck or a wet coat as a cat 

 might do. But the most curious result of their ignorance was 

 the fact that they had to be taught to lap; they had never 

 quenched their thirst except by eating snow, and when water 

 was put before them they didn't know what to do with it ; in 

 fact, they grew very thirsty before they could be persuaded to 

 drink by thrusting their noses into the water tins.' 



' February 28. — The S.E. breeze increased in force during 

 the night, and by morning it was blowing a full gale with con- 

 stant snowstorms. The night was not pleasant, as we got 

 amongst the ice again, which kept us all on the qui vive ; at 

 midnight we found it stretching across our bows, and the snow 



