80 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
as quickly as possible, these being the only sails set, and 
nosed along dead slow to leeward under steam alone. 
Gradually we could see either pack or the blink of it all 
along our port and starboard beam, while gradually we felt 
our way down a big patch of open water. 
There was quite a meeting on the bridge, and it was 
decided to get well in, and lie in open water under lee of 
the pack till the gale blew itself out. “ Under ordinary 
circumstances the safe course would have been to go about 
and stand to the east. But in our case we must risk trouble 
to get smoother water for the ponies. We passed a stream 
of ice over which the sea was breaking heavily, and one 
realized the danger of being amongst loose floes in such a 
sea. But soon we came to a compacter body of floes, and 
running behind this we were agreeably surprised to find 
comparatively smooth water. We ran on for a bit, then 
stopped and lay to.”"* 
All that day we lay behind that pack, steaming slowly 
to leeward every now and then, as the ice drifted down 
upon us. Towards night it began to clear. It was New 
Year's ve. 
I turned in, thinking to wake in 1911. But I had not 
been long asleep when I found Atkinson at my side. 
‘Have youseen theland’”’ he said. “* Wrap your blankets 
round you, and go and see.”” And when I got up on deck 
I could see nothing for a while. Then he said: “ All the 
high lights are snow lit up by the sun.” And there they 
were: the most glorious peaks appearing, as it were like 
satin, above the clouds, the only white in a dark horizon. 
The first glimpse of Antarctic land, Sabine and the great 
mountains of the Admiralty Range. They were 110 miles 
away. But 
Icy mountains high on mountains pil’d 
Seem to the shivering sailor from afar 
Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of cloud ; 2 
and, truth to tell, 1 went back to my warm bunk. At mid- 
night a rowdy mob, ringing the New Year in with the 
dinner-bell, burst into our Nursery. I expected to be 
1 Scott’s Last Expedition, vol. 1. p. 77. 2 Thomson. 
