SOUTH 
force that had been exercised was astonishing. Slabs of ice 
3 ft. thick, and weighing tons, had been tented upwards over a 
circnlar area with a diameter of about 25 ft., and cracks radiated 
outwards for more than 20 ft. 
'I'he quarters in the 'tween decks were completed by the 
10th, and the men took possession of the cubicles that had 
been built. The largest cubicle contained Macklin, Mcllroy, 
Hurley, and Hussey and it was named The Billabong/' 
Clark and Wordie lived opposite in a room called Auld 
Reekie." Next came the abode of The Nuts " or engineers, 
followed by " The Sailors' Rest,'' inhabited by Cheetham and 
McNeish. The Anchorage and " The Fumarole " were on 
the other side. The new quarters became known as The 
Ritz," and meals were served there instead of in the ward- 
room. Breakfast was at 9 a.m., lunch at 1 p.m., tea at 4 p.m., 
and dinner at 6 p.m. Wild, Marston, Crean, and Worsley 
established themselves in cubicles in the wardroom, and by 
the middle of the month all hands had settled down to the 
winter routine. I lived alone aft. 
Worsley, Hurley, and Wordie made a journey to a big berg, 
called by us the Rampart Berg, on the 11th. The distance 
out was 7| miles, and the party covered a total distance of 
about 17 miles. Hurley took some photographs and Wordie 
came back rejoicin.g with a little dust and some moss. Within 
a radius of one mile round the berg there is thin young ice, 
strong enough to march over with care," wrote Worsley. The 
area of dangerous pressure, as regards a ship, does not seem to 
extend for more than a quarter of a mile from the berg. Here 
there are cracks and constant slight movement, which becomes 
exciting to the traveller when he feels a piece of ice gradually 
upending beneath his feet. Close to the berg the pressure 
makes all sorts of quaint noises. We heard tapping as from a 
hammer, grunts, groans and squeaks, electric trams running, 
birds singing, kettles boiling noisily, and an occasional swish 
as a large piece of ice, released from pressure, suddenly jumped 
or turned oA^er. We noticed all sorts of quaint effects, such as 
huge bubbles or domes of ice, 40 ft, across and 4 or 5 ft. high. 
Large sinuous pancake-sheets were spread over the floe in 
40 
