SEALS AT PLAY 



under their weight it fortunately held. At about 3 p.m. 

 the weather grew very thick and it began to snow; a 

 mild blizzard developing later, we hoisted sail on both 

 sledges. 



The next day, October 24, we found it very warm 

 in the sleeping-bag, the sky being thickly overcast 

 with dense stratus cloud. A strong water sky showed 

 up to the east of us, while over the mountains to the 

 west it was moderately clear. The presence of this 

 water sky, indicating open sea, warned us that it was 

 unsafe to stand out far from the land. We reached that 

 evening a long rocky point of gneissic granite, which we 

 called Gneiss Point. After our evening hoosh we walked 

 across to the point and collected a number of interesting 

 geological specimens, including blocks of kenyte lava. 



The following day, October 25, proved a very heavy 

 day for sledging, as we had to drag the sledges over new 

 snow from three to four inches deep. In places it had 

 a tough top crust which we would break through up to 

 our ankles. We met also several obstacles in the 

 way of wide cracks in the sea ice, from six to ten feet in 

 width, and several miles in length. The sea water 

 between the walls of the cracks had only recently been 

 frozen over, so that the ice was only just thick enough 

 to bear the sledges. The vicinity of these great ice- 

 cracks were perfect baby farms for young seals. It 

 was a pretty sight to see one of these baby seals playing 

 with its mother, whom it kept gently flicking over the 

 nose with its small flippers, the mother every now and 

 then gently boxing the baby's ear with one of her large 

 flippers. One of these mothers charged down on 

 Mackay, who was making an inspection of her baby 

 at too close quarters to suit her fancy. Another mother 

 was moaning in great distress over her baby, which had 



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