NEW LAND 
througli the ice-lanes. But, like other good things, our spell 
of free movement had to end. The Endurance encomitered 
the ice again at 1 a.m. on the 10th, Loose pack stretched to 
east and south, with open water to the west and a good water- 
sky. It consisted partly of heavy hunimocky ice showing 
evidence of great pressure, but contained also many thick, 
flat floes evidently formed in some sheltered bay and never 
subjected to pressure or to much, motion. The swirl of the 
ship's wash brought diatomaceous scum from the sides of 
this ice. The water became thick with diatoms at 9 a.m., 
and I ordered a cast to be made. No bottom was found 
at 210 fathoms. The Endumnce continued to advance south- 
ward through loose pack that morning. We saw the spouts 
of numerous wliales and noticed some hundreds of crab-eaters 
lying on the floes. White-rumped terns, Antarctic petrels and 
snow-petrels were numerous, and there was a colony of adelies 
on a low berg. A few killer- whales, with their characteristic 
high dorsal fin, also came in view. The noon position was 
lat. 72° 02' S., long. 16° 07' W., and the run for the twenty-four 
hours had been 136 miles S. 6° E. 
"We were now ui the vicinity of the land discovered by 
Dr. W. S. Bruce, leader of the Scotia Expedition, in 1904, 
and named by him Coats' Land. Dr. Bruce encoimtered an 
ice-barrier in lat. 72° 18' S., long. 10° W., stretching from 
north-east to south-west. He followed the barrier-edge to the 
south-west for 150 miles and reached lat. 74° 1' S., long. 22° W. 
He saw no naked rock, but his description of rising slopes of 
snow and ice, with shoaHng water off the barrier-wall, indicated 
clearly the presence of land. It was up those slopes, at a 
point as far south as possible, that I planned to begin the 
march across the Antarctic continent. All hands were watching 
now^ for the coast described by Dr. Bruce, and at 5 p.m. the 
look-out reported an appearance of land to the south-south- 
east. We could see a gentle snow-slope rising to a height of 
about one thousand feet. It seemed to be an island or a penin- 
sula with a sound on its south side, and the position of its most 
northerly point was about 72° 34' S., 16° 40' W. The Endurance 
was passiug through heavy loose pack, and shortly before 
23 
