SOUTH 
very few liummoeks or ridges in it. We thought it must have 
been formed at sea in very calm weather and drifted up from 
the south-east. I had never seen such a large area of imbroken 
ice in the Ross Sea. 
We waited with banked fires for the strong easterly breeze 
to moderate or the pack to open. At 6.30 p.m. on December 22 
some lanes opened and we were able to move towards the 
south again. The following morning found us working slowly 
through the pack, and the noon observation gave us a gain 
of 19 miles S. 41° W. for the seventeen and a half hours 
under steam. Many year-old adelies, three crab-eaters, six 
sea-leopards, one Weddell and two blue whales were seen. 
The air temperature, which had been down to 25° Fahr. on 
December 21, had risen to 34° Fahr, While we were working 
along leads to the southward in the afternoon, we counted 
fifteen bergs. Three of these were table-topped, and one 
was about 70 ft. high and 5 miles long. Evidently it had 
come from a barrier-edge. The ice became heavier but 
slightly more open, and we had a calm night with fine long 
leads of open water. The water was so still that new ice was 
forming on the leads. We had a run of 70 miles to our credit 
at noon on December 24, the position being lat. 64° 32' S., long. 
17°17'W, All the dogs except eight had been named. I do 
not know who had been responsible for some of the names, which 
seemed to represent a variety of tastes. They were as follows : 
Rugby, Upton, Bristol, Millhill, Songster, Sandy, Mack, Mercury, 
Wolf, Amundsen, Hercules, Hackenschmidt, Samson, Sammy, 
Skipper, Caruso, Sub, Ulysses, Spotty, Bosun, Slobbers, Sadie, 
Sue, Sally, Jasper, Tim, Sweep, Martin, Splitlip, Luke, Saint, 
Satan, Chips, Stumps, Snapper, Painful, Bob, Snowball, Jerry, 
Judge, Sooty, Rufus, Sidelights, Simeon, Swanlier, Chirgwin, 
Steamer, Peter, Fluffy, Steward, Slippery, Elliott, Roy, Noel, 
Shakespeare, Jamie, Bummer, Smuts, Lupoid, Spider, and Sailor. 
Some of the names, it will be noticed, had a descriptive flavour. 
Heavy floes held up the ship from midnight till 6 a.m. on 
December 25, Christmas Day. Then they opened a little and 
we made progress till 11.30 a.m., when the leads closed again. 
We had encountered good leads and workable ice during 
14 
