INTO THE WEDDELI. SEA 
after proceeding for two hours the Endurance was stopped again 
by heav}^ floes. It was impossible to manoeuvre the ship in 
the ice owing to the strong wind, which kept the floes in move- 
ment and caused lanes to open and close with dangerous 
rapidity. The noon observation showed that we had made 
six miles to the south-east in the previous twenty-four hours. 
All hands were engaged during the day in rubbing shoots off 
our potatoes, which were found to be sprouting freely. We 
remained moored to a floe over the following day, the wind 
not having moderated ; indeed, it freshened to a gale in the 
afternoon, and the members of the staff and crew took advantage 
of the pause to enjoy a vigorously contested game of football 
on the level surface of the floe alongside the ship. Twelve bergs 
were in sight at this time. The noon position was lat. 62^ 42' S., 
long. 17° 54' W., showing that we had drifted about six miles 
in a north-easterly direction. 
Monday, December 21, was beautifully fine, with a gentle 
west-north-westerly breeze. We made a start at 3 a.m. and 
proceeded through the pack in a south-westerly direction. At 
noon we had gained seven miles almost due east, the northerly 
drift of the pack having continued while the ship was apparently 
moving to the south. Petrels of several species, penguins, 
and seals were plentiful, and we saw four small blue whales. 
At noon we entered a long lead to the southward and passed 
around and between nine splendid bergs. One mighty specimen 
was shaped like the Rock of Gibraltar but with steeper cliffs, 
and another had a natural dock that would have contained 
the Aquitmiia. A spur of ice closed the entrance to the 
huge blue pool. Hurley brought out his kinematograph-camera 
in order to make a record of these bergs. Fine long leads 
running east and south-east among bergs were found during 
the afternoon, but at midnight the ship was stopped by 
small, heavy ice-floes, tightly packed against an unbroken 
plain of ice. The outlook from the mast-head was not encourag- 
ing. The big floe was at least 15 miles long and 10 nnles wide. 
The edge could not be seen at the widest part, and the area of 
the floe must have been not less than 150 square miles. It 
appeared to be formed of year-old ice, not very thick and with 
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