LAND 85 
we came through the last of the Strait pack some three 
miles north of Cape Royds. We steered for the Cape, fully 
expecting to find the edge of the pack-ice ranging west- 
ward from it. To our astonishment we ran on past the 
Cape with clear water or thin sludge tce on all sides of us. 
Past Cape Royds, past Cape Barne, past the glacier on its 
‘south side, and finally round and past Inaccessible Island, 
a good two miles south of Cape Royds. The Cape itself 
was cut off from the south. We could have gone farther, 
but the last sludge ice seemed to be increasing 1n thickness, 
and there was no wintering spot to aim for but Cape Armi- 
tage.! I have never seen the ice of the Sound in such a 
condition or the land so free from snow. Taking these 
facts in conjunction with the exceptional warmth of the air, 
I came to the conclusion that it had been an exceptionally 
warm summer. At this point it was evident that we hada 
considerable choice of wintering spots. We could have 
gone to either of the small islands, to the mainland, the 
Glacier Tongue, or pretty well anywhere except Hut Point. 
My main wish was to choose a place that would not be 
easily cut off from the Barrier, and my eye fell on a cape 
which we used to call the Skuary, a little behind us. It was 
separated from the old Discovery quarters by two deep 
bays on either side of the Glacier Tongue, and I thought 
that these bays would remain frozen until late in the season, 
and that when they froze over again the ice would soon 
become firm. I called a council and put these propositions. 
To push on to the Glacier Tongue and winter there ; to 
push west to the ‘tombstone’ ice and to make our way to 
an inviting spot to the northward of the cape we used to 
call ‘the Skuary.’ I favoured the latter course, and on dis- 
cussion we found it obviously the best, so we turned back 
close around Inaccessible Island and steered for the fast 
ice off the Cape at full speed. After piercing a small fringe 
of thin ice at the edge of the fast floe the ship’s stem struck 
heavily on hard bay ice about a mile and a half from the 
shore. Here was a road to the Cape and a solid wharf 
1 The extreme south point of the island, a dozen miles farther, on one of whose minor 
headlands, Hut Point, stood the Discovery hut. 
