THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



the supporting-party was to convey to me at the Bluff 

 Depot. On the 25th the ice had broken up to such an 

 extent that Captain Evans thought there would be a 

 chance of getting far enough across McMurdo Sound to 

 search the western coast-line for the party that had been 

 exploring the western mountains, and also for the North- 

 ern Party, which might by that time have returned from 

 the journey to the Magnetic Pole and reached Butter 

 Point. The Nimrod stood out into the sound, and from 

 a distance of ten or twelve miles a heliograph was seen 

 twinkling near Butter Point, The ship was able to get 

 right alongside the fast ice, and picked upArmytage, 

 Priestley and Brocklehurst. 



After this date fine weather was experienced only at 

 short intervals, the season being advanced, and as a 

 consequence the fast ice that remained in the sound 

 commenced to break up rapidly, and took the form of 

 pack trending northwards. When blizzards blew, as 

 they did frequently, the Nimrod moored on the lee-side 

 of a stranded iceberg in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Barne, with the object of preserving her position without 

 the consumption of more coal than was absolutely 

 necessary. After the ice had broken up sufficiently, 

 shelter was found under Glacier Tongue. 



The waiting was rather unpleasant for the remaining 

 members of the shore-party and for those on board the 

 ship, for the time was approaching when it would be 

 necessary to leave for the north unless the Nimrod was 

 to be frozen in for the winter, and two of the parties 

 were still out. I had left instructions that if the 

 Northern Party had not returned by February 1 a search 

 was to be made along the western coast in a northerly 

 direction. The party was three weeks overdue, and 

 on February 1, therefore, the Nimrod went north, and 



TO 



