84 British Antarctic Expedition. 
noticed it. I myself was in my cabin at the time, 
and also noticed the shaking. 
On the rsth and 16th February the Southern 
Cross was compelled to lay to in a storm of blind- 
ing sleet, decks and rigging being completely covered 
with snow and ice. On the evening of the r6th we 
sighted land, and entered into Robertson Bay on the 
17th February, 1899. The rocks of Cape Adare 
stood out dark and conspicuous as we steamed into 
the Bay. We could not sight the low-lying pen- 
insula at Cape Adare until we were very close to 
the shore. Only a yellow border at the foot of the 
rocks of the Cape was visible, and indicated the place 
where I intended to pitch the pioneer camp. [t 
seemed, at a distance, so small and inhospitable that 
some of my staff felt constrained to remark at first 
sight of the place, that if it was there I proposed to 
live for a year, they had better send letters of farewell 
back with the vessel It was a moment which, I 
believe, will always remain in the memory of my staff 
and self as we slowly moved towards the low beach 
whereon man had never ventured to live before, and 
where we were to live or perish, under conditions 
which were as an unopened book to ourselves and to 
the world. 
