i9o2] WE LOSE OUR BEARINGS 139 



place, and as this had never yet been seen, our excellent zoolo- 

 gist was all eagerness to explore it ; but in the circumstances 

 I thought it hopeless to attempt to cross the treacherous, 

 slushy sheet of ice which lay between, and reluctantly we 

 were forced to steam past this interesting spot, hoping that 

 we might have better fortune on our return journey. In the 

 light of fuller information which we were able to obtain con- 

 cerning these birds, it seems doubtful whether this really was 

 their breeding- place, but at any rate it would have been inter- 

 esting to know what they were doing in such numbers. 



Our eager outlook for land beyond the great ice-sheet was 

 only partly rewarded ; far to the south-east we could see the 

 faint undulating lines of the high snow slopes, but in the dim 

 expanse of white no sign of exposed rock appeared, and even the 

 outlines vanished as the sun travelled lower towards the south. 



At midnight an appearance of land was reported in the 

 E.N.E. ; a bank of cloud hung low upon the horizon, and its 

 fixed position and unchanging form seemed to indicate that 

 land lay beneath it. Though glasses were constantly directed 

 towards it, no more definite form was ever revealed, but it is 

 curious to note that on the following day a similar cloudy 

 indication was visible in this direction. 



It was after midnight on the 31st that we got lost. Leaving 

 the ship steaming along the edge of the fast ice in a northerly 

 direction, as I have described, I went below to snatch a few 

 hours of the sleep of which the late exciting times had robbed 

 me, and have only a dim recollection of constant reports that 

 the ship had to take a more westerly course owing to ice 

 islands, bergs and pack, and in obedience to a general order 

 to keep in the open water, westerly gradually became southerly, 

 and so on until, as we were headed off again and again, the 

 ship must have worked round a complete circle. She was 

 well on towards a repetition of this manoeuvre when I again 

 reached the bridge, and nobody knew exactly where we were. 

 It was evident that the stretch of open water which we had 

 entered through a very narrow channel on the previous even- 

 ing was surrounded by a chain of immense bergs, between 



