CHAPTER II 
NEW LAND 
The first day of the New Year (January 1, 1916) was cloudy, 
with a gentle northerly breeze and occasional snow-squalls. 
The condition of the pack improved in the evening, and alter 
8 p.m. we forged ahead rapidly through brittle young ice, easily 
broken by the ship. A few hours later a moderate gale came 
up from the east, with continuous snow. After 4 a.m. on the 
2nd we got into thick old pack-ice, showing signs of heavy 
pressure. It was much Lmumocked, but large areas of open 
water and long leads to the south-west continued until noon. 
The position then was lat. 69'' 49' S., long. 15° 42' W., and the 
run for the twenty-four hours had been 124 miles S. 3° W. 
This was cheering. 
The heavy pack blocked the way south after midday. It 
would have been almost impossible to have pushed the ship 
into the ice, and in any case the gale would have made such a 
proceeding highly dangerous. So we dodged along to the west 
and north, looking for a suitable opening towards the south. 
The good run had given me hope of sighting the land on the 
following day, and the delay was annoying. I was growing 
anxious to reach land on account of the dogs, which had not 
been able to get exercise for four weeks, and were becoming 
run down. We passed at least two hundred bergs during 
the day, and we noticed also large masses of hummocky bay- 
ice and ice-foot. One floe of bay-ice had black earth upon 
it, apparently basaltic in origin, and there was a large berg 
with a broad band of yellowish brown right through it. The 
stain may have been volcanic dust. Many of the bergs had 
quaint shapes. There was one that exactly resembled a large 
two-funnel liner, complete in silhouette except for smoke. 
Later in the day we found an opening in the pack and made 
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