191 1] 
SEALING 
III 
a lead of smooth ice about half a mile to the northward. 
Getting on to this we made good progress, arriving back 
at the hut at 5 p.m. A good many seals were up, and 
about two miles from home we came on the first party 
of penguins. 
After our return from this second coast trip the sea 
ice became too rotten to be trustworthy, even in Robertson 
Bay, while to the north of the beach, where the sweep of 
the current was exceptionally strong, the various open 
water patches which had been present since August 
rapidly widened and coalesced, and in December the ice 
both east and west of the cape broke out with great 
rapidity. 
Our work, therefore, was now restricted to the im- 
mediate confines of the beach and the peninsula of Cape 
Adare, and this time was principally occupied in taking 
routine observations and adding to our biological 
collections. 
Amongst the specimens collected at this time were 
several fine sea leopards, which I was fortunate enough 
to shoot near the rookery. As most of them were 
shot in the water, we had some difficulty in securing the 
bodies, and it was here that our kayaks were very useful. 
We could carry these light and yet seaworthy craft 
down to the ice foot and launch them, and from them slip 
a noose round the body as it lay on the bottom in two 
or three fathoms of water. The line was then passed 
ashore and the united strength of the party just sufficed 
to land the quarry. 
