84 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [February 
Several seals, one of which looked like a sea leopard, 
and some Adelie and Emperor penguins were on the 
ice, while large flocks of Antarctic petrels were flying 
about everywhere. 
The ice cliffs, stretching as far as we could see, gave 
us no hope of finding a landing-place. 
There is evidence of a great deal of pressure here and 
the upper edge of the cliff near us, lOO feet high, showed 
a pressure ridge, where evidently a large berg had been 
forced against it. 
At 5.0 P.M. we reluctantly turned and retraced our 
steps, the only chance of a landing-place being Balloon 
Bight or some inlet at the east end of the Barrier. 
Soundings off Cape Colbeck gave us 89 fathoms. During 
the night we sailed as close as possible to the ice face 
but passed nothing but high cliffs. About 3 o'clock on 
the morning of the 3rd a strong S.E. wind sprang up, 
bringing a low mist, but not thick enough to prevent 
us keeping close to the coast. Soon after the cliff dipped a 
little and appeared on both bows, showing we were running 
into a bay; this was the place where I had had great 
hopes of effecting a landing, but we were unable to do so. 
It was interesting to note that while the eastern side 
of the bay was clean cut, the western side was much 
weather-worn and honeycombed with caves, evidently 
worn bv the strong westerly current which sweeps along 
the Barrier. Wc saw two narrow inlets opening N.E. 
but not wide enough to trust the ship in ; moreover, 
as they open in this direction they are more liable to be 
blocked by any loose ice drifting in. 
