THE HEART OE THE ANTARCTIC 



up for their blows. Evidently this seal hole was a 

 syndicate affair. The sounds at times seemed right under 

 our tent. 



October 8 was a fine, clear day, with a beautiful 

 sunset, and a magnificent mirage, in the direction of 

 Beaufort Island. To the north of us, the curious hills, 

 called by Captain Scott the " Stranded Moraines," were 

 now beginning to show out very plainly in the direction 

 in which we were travelling. 



On the morning of October 9 we got under way soon 

 after eight o'clock. It was a lovely, calm day but cold, 

 the thermometer registering 30° Fahr. at 8 p.m. The 

 surface was fairly good for sledging, but in places 

 we came on patches of soft snow, and a small, lumpy 

 structure of the ice-surface, resembling a newly raked 

 garden bed, evidently due to the thawing down and 

 refreezing of " ice flowers." This made travelling very 

 heavy. The " Stranded Moraines " now showed up very 

 clearly, and Butter Point itself became visible. 



The following day, Saturday, October 10, we were 

 awakened by the chatter of some Emperor penguins 

 who had marched down on our tent during the night 

 to investigate us. The sounds may be described as 

 something between the cackle of a goose and the chortle 

 of a kookaburra. On peeping out of the Burberry 

 spout of our tent I saw four standing by the sledges. 

 They were much interested at the sight of me, and the 

 conversation between them became lively. They 

 evidently took us for penguins of an inferior type, 

 and the tent for our nest. They watched, and took 

 careful note of all our doings, and gave us a good send- 

 ofF when we started about 8.30 a.m. 



On our journey that morning we passed close by a 

 large bull seal of the Weddell species. A little further 

 on we noticed a curious dark object on the ice in the 



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