THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



factured from the part of the blood which does not 

 contain the fibrin, but on this occasion the black pudding 

 was wholly formed of fibrin, so that it may be described 

 as a negative rather than a positive black pudding. 

 This fibrin was boiled up in seal oil, and though rather 

 tasteless was at all events nourishing, and was certainly 

 filling. 



While Mackay had been in pursuit of the seal meat 

 Mawson had taken a meridian altitude while I kept 

 the time for him. After our hoosh we packed the 

 sledges, and Mawson took a photograph showing 

 the cliff forming the northern boundary of the 

 Nordenskjold Ice Barrier. This cliff was about forty 

 feet in height. We had some discussion as to whether 

 or not there was a true tidal crack separating the sea 

 ice from this ice barrier. Certainly, on the south 

 side there was no evidence of the presence of any such 

 crack, but on the north side there were small local 

 cracks; yet it could hardly be said that these were of 

 sufficient importance to be termed true tide-cracks. 

 In one of these cracks most beautiful filagree ice crystals, 

 fully one inch across, lined the sides of the walls of the 

 crack in the sea ice. There can be little doubt, I think, 

 that the greater part of this Nordenskjold Ice Barrier 

 is afloat. 



The sun was so warm this day that I wa^ tempted 

 before turning in to the sleeping-bag to take off my 

 ski-boots and socks and give my feet a snow bath, which 

 was very refreshing. 



The following day, November 14, we were naturally 

 anxious to be sure of our exact position on the chart, 

 in view of the fact that we had come to the end of the 

 ice barrier some eighteen miles quicker than the chart 

 led us to anticipate we should. Mawson accordingly 

 worked up his meridian altitude, and I plotted out the 



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