A BABY SEAL 



our sleeping-bag inside out and air it in the sun. Pre- 

 vious to this the reindeer fur inside the bag had become 

 much encrusted with ice, chiefly the result of the freez- 

 ing of our breath. Although the heat of the sun was 

 insufficient to actually thaw the ice it evaporated it to a 

 considerable extent, and we found the bag that night much 

 more comfortable to sleep in than it had been for many 

 nights previous. 



The following day, one and a quarter miles north of 

 our preceding camp, we reached an interesting rocky 

 headland. Here we found a mother seal with a newly 

 born baby seal, the latter about three and a half feet 

 in length. The mother seal at short intervals made 

 a sound like " Wa-a-a." After a close inspection the 

 mother and baby were left undisturbed, and we turned 

 our attention to the rocks. These were most interesting, 

 bearing a general resemblance to those at Cape Bernacchi. 

 Some of the quartz veins traversing this point Mawson 

 thought very favourable for gold. 



When we left this point the wind had considerably 

 freshened. We had previously hoisted sail on both 

 sledges, and the wind was now sufFciently strong to 

 admit of our pulling both sledges together. The total 

 distance travelled was seven statute miles. This was 

 the most favourable wind we experienced during 

 the whole of our journey to and from the Magnetic 

 Pole. 



Shortly after leaving Baby Seal Point we encoun- 

 tered heavy belts of screw pack-ice with high sastrugi 

 between. The Christmas Tree sledge capsized badly 

 when being dragged over one of these high snow ridges. 

 We were much exhausted when we camped that night 

 and had suffered somewhat from the cold wind, the 

 temperature being about 10° Fahr. 



That night I experienced a rather bad attack of 



95 



