SOUTHWARD ky 
were all over the place that night. At 4 a.m. Day whis- 
pered in my ear that there was nothing to do, and Pennell 
promised to call me if there was—so I remembered no 
more until past six. 
And Crean’s rabbit gave birth to seventeen little ones, 
and it was said that Crean had already given away twenty- 
two. 
We had stopped and banked fires against an immense 
composite floe on the evening of Christmas Eve. How we 
watched the little changes in the ice and the wind, and 
scanned the horizon for those black patches which meant 
open water ahead. But always there was that same white 
sky to the south of us. And then one day there came the 
shadow of movement on the sea, the faintest crush on the 
brash ice, the whisper of great disturbances afar off. It 
settled again: our hopes were dashed to the ground. Then 
came the wind. It was so thick that we could not see far; 
but even in our restricted field changes were in progress. 
““We commence to move between two floes, make 200 
or 300 yards, and are then brought up bows on to a large 
lump. ‘This may mean a wait of anything from ten minutes 
to half-an-hour, whilst the ship swings round, falls away, 
and drifts to leeward. When clear she forges ahead again 
and the operation is repeated. Occasionally when she can 
get a little way on she cracks the obstacle and slowly passes 
through it. There is a distinct swell—very long, very low. 
I counted the period as about nine seconds. Every one 
says the ice is breaking up.”’? 
On December 28 the gale abated. The sky cleared, and 
showed signs of open water ahead. It was cold in the wind 
but the sun was wonderful, and we lay out on deck and 
basked in its warmth, a cheerful, careless crowd. After 
breakfast there wasa consultation between Scottand Wilson 
in the crow’s nest. It was decided to raise steam. 
Meanwhile we sounded, and found a volcanic muddy 
bottom at 2035 fathoms. The last sounding showed 1400 
fathoms ; we had passed over a bank. 
Steam came at 8 p.m. and we began to push forward. 
1 Scott’s Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 62. 
