pressure from northerly vrinds for some time. In the afternoon of the 

 26th the cargo ships were left behind and a path was broken aroiind 

 the line of bergs to the east, beyond which open water with alternate 

 strips of ice was encoxmtered. By 1800 a strip of fast ice was met, 

 the northern edge of which extended southwest along the shore of 

 Budd Coast north of the Balaena Islets. These three small rocky 

 islands could be seen a few miles to the southeast surrounded by fast 

 ice. Following a lead northeast along the edge of the fast ice, 

 progress was made for a time, but ice again blocked the ship' s path 

 to the north. The ship then headed back, retracing her former route, 

 and finally, after having broken through ice which had just closed some 

 of the previously open leads, she headed north along the 110°40*E 

 meridian. Here, easily navigable ice was transitted, two to three 

 feet thick and mostly block, brash and small floes, some of which were 

 15 to 20 feet thick and covered with snow to a depth of four feet. 

 Scattered ice was reached by 0845 on the morning of the 27th, and the 

 cargo ships were excorted to the northern edge of the pack. The 

 GLACIER then headed west throvigh open water and made a second attempt 

 to penetrate the pack at 108°E. Heavy, consolidated ice was soon 

 reached and a third attempt was tried at IO60E, with the same results. 



On her fourth attempt, at 109°E, the GLACIER was successful in 

 finding a way suitable for convoying the cargo ships through the 

 pack ice. Going on alone on the 28th, the ship passed the line of 

 bergs after transiting an almost solid pack of broken and refrozen 

 ice, averaging two to three feet in thickness and with one to two feet 

 of snow cover. That night the ship broke through the pack ice into 

 open water near the head of Vincennes Bay and proceeded to Holl Island, 

 Holl Island was surrounded by open water, as were all of the Windmill 

 Islands except those like Mitchell, Clark, and Bailey which are tied 

 to the mainland by a continuation of the continental ice shelf. 

 Following a one-day reconnaissance of the islands in order to select 

 a base site for Wilkes Station, the GLACIER left Holl Island at 2030 

 on the night of 29 January and returned to bring the cargo vessels in. 

 The return passage was made through ice similar to that transitted 

 originally, and the ships were successfully brought to the anchorage 

 off Clark Island at about 1000 on 31 Januaryo On this date and for 

 nearly two weeks following the arrival of the ships, open water 

 completely surrounded the northern Windmill Islands, 



February - On 14 February a quick trip was made out through the 

 pack ice to conduct a reconnaissance preliminary to taking the cargo 

 ships out for the passage north. Nearly ice-free water was traversed 

 at first until at 65°53'S, 110°13'E a solid, consolidated mass of ice 

 was encountered which brought the ship up short (Fig. 27), Edging 

 away from this ice to the west, and entering fairly loose pack, the 

 ice was left behind at about 65°21'S, 109°30'E. Following a more westerly 

 route on the return passage south, ice of not more than eight-tenths 



51 



