SEA-LEOPARDS 



bite he had received on the Erebus journey. The patient 

 was put under chloroform and the operation was wit- 

 nessed by an interested and sympathetic audience. 

 After the bone had been removed, the sufferer was 

 shifted into my room, where he remained till just 

 before Mid-winter's Day, when he was able to get out 

 and move about again. We had about April 8 one of 

 the peculiar southerly blizzards so common during our 

 last expedition, the temperature varying rapidly from 

 minus 23° to plus 4° Fahr. This blizzard continued 

 till the evening of the 11th, and when it had abated 

 we found the bay and sound clear of ice again. I began 

 to feel rather worried about this and wished for it to 

 freeze over, for across the ice lay our road to the south. 

 We observed occasionally about this time that peculiar 

 phenomenon of McMurdo Sound called " earth shadows." 

 Long dark bars, projected up into the sky from the 

 Western Mountains, made their appearance at sunrise. 

 These lines are due to the shadow of the giant Erebus 

 being cast across the Western Mountains. Our days 

 were now getting very short and the amount of daylight 

 was a negligible quantity. We boarded up the remainder 

 of the windows, and depended entirely upon the artificial 

 light in the winter quarters. The light given by the 

 acetylene gas was brilliant, four burners lighting the 

 whole of the hut. 



We saw only two sea-leopards during the whole period 

 of our stay in the Antarctic, and both these specimens 

 were secured. The first was killed soon after the sun left 

 us. A seal was reported to have been seen on the ice 

 near the winter quarters, and Joyce went down to kill it, 

 as we wanted fresh meat and blubber. When he got 

 close he found that the animal was a sea-leopard. He 

 was armed only with a club, and came running for a 

 pistol, for the sea-leopards are savage and aggressive, 



219 



