1902] RETURN TO VICTORIA LAND 151 



decks so slippery, that it was only with difficulty we could 

 brace round the yards, and the men, who had frequently to 

 work with bare hands, suffered much from frozen fingers before 

 we had settled down to the new course. The wind dropping 

 later, we were obliged to get up steam, and soon after to furl 

 sails, but by this time the fog had cleared, and we could see 

 clearly the massive outlines of Terror and Erebus. In the 

 evening we rounded Cape Bird, but in such repeated and 

 heavy snowstorms that frequently we could not see the bow- 

 sprit from the bridge, and were forced to stop and wait for the 

 clearer intervals. The temperature, however, had risen nearly 

 20 and the air felt mild and soft in comparison with that 

 which we had lately experienced. By the morning of the 8th 

 we were once more in McMurdo Sound ; a south-easterly 

 wind and a falling temperature were gradually clearing the 

 skies and revealing the same magnificent scene of mountain 

 and glacier on which we had so recently gazed. 



The heavy pack which had obstructed us before seemed 

 now to have vanished, and as we eagerly scanned the coast of 

 the mainland our hopes rose high that we should find some 

 sheltered nook in this far south region in which the ' Dis- 

 covery ' might safely brave the rigours of the coming winter, 

 and remain securely embedded whilst our sledge-parties, 

 already beyond the limits of the known, strove to solve the 

 mysteries of the vast new world which would then lie on every 

 side. 



