THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



Captain Evans had kept east with the hope of sighting 

 King Edward VII Land, but the pack seemed to be 

 continuous in that direction, and on the 30th he there- 

 fore shaped a course for Cape Bird, and on January 1, 

 1909, Mount Erebus was sighted. The experience 

 of Captain Evans on this voyage confirms my own 

 impression that, under normal conditions, the pack 

 that stretches out from the Barrier to the eastward 

 of the Ross Sea is not penetrable, and that the Discovery 

 was able to push to within sight of King Edward VII 

 Land in 1902 for the reason that the ice was unusually 

 open that season. 



The progress of the Nimrod towards the winter 

 quarters was blocked by ice off Beaufort Island, and 

 after manoeuvring about for three hours Captain Evans 

 made the vessel fast to a floe with ice anchors. The 

 next morning he cast off from the floe, and with the 

 help of the current, which seems to set constantly to 

 the west between Cape Bird and Beaufort Island, and 

 by taking advantage of lanes of open water, gradually 

 proceeded in two days to a point only twenty-eight 

 miles from Cape Royds. Some heavy bumps against 

 the floes tested the strength of the vessel, and finally 

 what appeared to be fast ice was encounterd, so that 

 no further progress towards the south was possible for 

 the time. 



There seemed to be no immediate possibility of the 

 Nimrod reaching Cape Royds, and Captain Evans 

 therefore decided to send Macldntosh with three men 

 to convey a mail-bag and the news of the ship's arrival 

 to the winter quarters. The party was to travel over 

 the sea ice with a sledge, and it did not seem that there 

 would be any great difficulties to be encountered. A 

 start was made at 10.15 a.m. on January 3, the party 

 consisting of Mackintosh, McGillan, Riches and Paton, 



42 



