386 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [March 
between Cape Bird and Beaufort Island she forced through 
with considerable difficulty. The condition off Terra 
Nova Bay had, if anything, grown worse, and this time 
the ship was held up when 20 miles E.N.E. of the 
Barrier. 
Finally, on March 7, taking into consideration the 
March 7, nature and extent of the pack and the time 
s^^^i'es^ 43' ^'^^ year, the conclusion was reluctantly 
^- come to that the ship could not reach Arrival 
Bay that season, and so she turned north. 
The next day a sooty albatross was around the ship — 
_ , , „ a most welcome si^ht, proving the absence of 
March 8, 73° & > J: t=> 
32' s., 174'" pack to north of her ; and from now on large 
^' numbers of deep sea birds were always round 
the ship. 
On the 15th and i6th the Terra Nova passed up the 
north-east side of the Balleny Islands, closer than any 
March 16, Other ship had been able to get, except Balleny 
1912 6() hijxisclf ; but either it was foogy or else it 
44' S., 164 ' '^"•^ 
48' E. snowed so persistently, that nothing was seen 
of them except on the i6th, when the fog suddenly 
rolled away for two hours and, through a rift in the clouds, 
a glimpse of Buckle Island was obtained— part of the 
side of a snow-capped mountain with the sun on it, a 
rarely beautiful sight, appearing to be quite detached 
from anything to do with the earth herself. Before this 
one of the beautiful little snowy petrels had appeared, 
telling of ice in the vicinity, so the course was altered 
more to the northward and, when the fog lifted, icebergs 
and smaller bits of ice were seen on the port hand. It 
