382 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [February 
sea to avoid being caught in the cul-de-sac of Lady 
Newnes Bay. 
Fortunately the retreat was open and the wind fair 
for taking it, and so on the 2ist the ship had regained 
Feb. 21, her freedom of action, but was no nearer 
5'^^^69^io' r^li^ving Campbell, That evening the storm 
^- eased down and course was again shaped for 
the Drygalski Barrier, with the hope that the ice which 
had previously barred her way might have drifted past 
the end of the Barrier. The pack (now on the starboard 
hand) was followed south as closely as possible, though 
snow often shut in everything to a ship's length and 
compelled her to stop till it was clear enough again to 
see where she was going. Gradually she was able to alter 
more to the west and north of west, until in the middle 
watch (23rd) she had rounded the southern end of the 
pack, some 20 miles south of the Drygalski Barrier, and 
was steering north through light pancake ice with, of 
course, the heavy pack again to the eastward of her. 
The pancake ice gradually became heavier, but she was 
able to make two or three knots at sixty revolutions. ' 
Tempted on by what appeared to be water sky ahead, 
she rather unexpectedly came to a dead stop about 
Feb, 23, 4 A.M. and could not even go astern in her 
^s^^^ftt wake, as the pack east of her was pressing 
E. in towards the coast and so consolidating the 
pancake ice she was in. At the same time the weather 
cleared and showed the extremity of the Drygalski 
Barrier to be fifteen miles due north. The water sky 
proved to be a myth. 
