466 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



another three months' journey seemed bad enough, and to 

 leave our comfortable Winter Quarters three weeks before 

 we started on that journey was an additional irritation. We 

 ran down in surface drift : it was thick to the south, the 

 wind bit our faces and hands ; we could see nothing by the 

 time we got in, and the snow was falling heavily. The 

 stable was full of beastly snow, the hut was cold and cheer- 

 less, and there was no blubber for the stove. And if we had 

 only taken the ship and gone home when the period for 

 which we had joined was passed, we might have been in 

 London for the last six months ! 



But then the snow stopped, the wind went down, and the 

 mountain tops appeared in all their glorious beauty. We 

 were in the middle of a perfect summer afternoon, with a 

 warm sun beating on the rocks as we walked round to Pram 

 Point. There were many seals here already, and it was 

 clear that the place would form a jolly nursery this year, 

 for there must have been a lot of movement on the Barrier 

 and the sea-ice was seamed with pressure ridges up to 

 twenty feet in height. The hollows were buckled until the 

 sea water came up and formed frozen ponds which would 

 thaw later into lovely baths. Sheltered from the wind the 

 children could chase their ridiculous tails to their hearts' 

 content : their mothers would lie and sleep, awakening 

 every now and then to scratch themselves with their long 

 finger-nails. Not quite yet, but they were not far away : 

 Lappy, one of our dogs who always looked more like a 

 spaniel than anything else, heard one under the ice and 

 started to burrow down to him ! 



Nearly three weeks later I paid several more visits to 

 this delightful place. It was thick with seals, big seals and 

 little seals, hairy seals and woolly seals : every day added 

 appreciably to the number of babies, and to the baaings 

 and bleatings which made the place sound like a great 

 sheepfold. In every case where I approached, the mothers 

 opened their mouths and bellowed at me to keep away, but 

 they did not come for me though I actually stroked one 

 baby. Often when the mother bellowed the little one would 

 also open his mouth, producing just the ghost of a bellow: 



