I9I2] 
TAYLOR'S PARTY PICKED UP 
heavy ice ahead forced her to turn back on her course 
some twelve miles and then work through the eastern 
belt of pack. 
The following extract is from the ship's journal : 
* Following the edge of the pack north, it was seen 
to be very heavy and the blink gave no sign of open 
water inside it until the ship was cast by north thirty- 
five miles from the end of the Drygalski, when there 
was a belt of pack some two miles broad and clear water 
inside, at any rate for some distance : this belt was 
entered at 2.30 p.m., and it shows the heaviness of the 
ice that she was not clear till past 9 o'clock (a speed 
of a third of a knot), although it was comparatively 
loose-looking pack. 
' The wind was rising as she worked through this 
strip of pack, and soon after it came on to snow heavily. 
Nothing could be done but to remain under easv steam, 
to avoid the floes, if possible, and look out for bergs. 
Before midnight it was blowing storm force and objects 
were visible at only a few hundred yards.' 
The storm continued for two days, the latter half 
without snow, when Mount Melbourne showed up in great 
beauty. 
The open water the ship was in was about six miles 
broad, and though across the pack another lead (or possibly 
open water) could be seen, five miles or so distant, yet it 
was absolutely out of her reach. 
The wind was steady in direction from the south-west, 
and the whole pack and ship drifted slowly but surely 
north until it became imperative to regain the open 
