392 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [January 
wish for, and we had plenty of time at our disposal to carry- 
out our scientific programme. When our way was barred 
by temporary congestion of the pack Pennell, Rennick, 
and Lillie would all get ahead with magnetic, deep-sea 
sounding, and biological work, mostly under favourable 
conditions. 
Occasionally the sea was so discoloured by diatoms 
that we might have been steaming in the Thames estuary, 
and then again the discoloured area would be succeeded 
by belts of beautiful blue water wherein one could see 
crab-eater seals diving under the ship. 
Quite the most fascinating sight in the pack ice was 
the exhibition of swimming by two crab-eaters in the open 
water leads on New Year's Day. They followed the ship 
and disported themselves like dolphins ; when we were 
forced to stop owing to the closeness of the pack the two 
seals rubbed themselves along the side of the ship. 
We were disappointed at seeing no Ross seals this year, 
for we have secured no specimens of this animal at all. 
Bv Tanuary ^ we had worked through 
Jan. 5. 1913, ^ y . , ^ 
71° 48' s., 168 miles of pack, averagmg only 24 miles a 
166 48 w. ^^^^ burning over seven tons of coal for 
each daily run. 
Now we were confronted by small belts of ice composed 
of floes 15 to 20 feet thick and 100 feet in diameter. This 
ice was so hard that the ship could not break it. Whenever 
we collided with a floe the Terra Nova shook fore and aft, 
the officer in the crow's nest experiencing the most violent 
concussions. 
On this day a penguin chased us for over an hour. 
