WINTER MONTHS 
contract and fall down, leaving notliing but an uncertain, 
wavering smudge which comes and goes. Presently the smudge 
swells and grows, taking shape until it presents the perfect 
inverted reflection of a berg on the horizon, the shadow hovering 
over the substance. More smudges appear at different points 
on the horizon. These spread out into long lines till they 
meet, and we are girdled by lines of shining snow-cliffs, laved 
at their bases by waters of illusion in which they appear to be 
faithfully reflected. So the shadows come and go silently, 
melting away finally as the sun declines to the west. We seem 
to be drifting helplessly in a strange world of unreality. It is 
reassuring to feel the ship beneath one's feet and to look 
down at the familiar line of kennels and igloos on the solid 
floe.'' The floe was not so solid as it appeared. We had 
reminders occasionally that the greedy sea was very close, and 
that the floe was but a treacherous friend, which might open 
suddenly beneath us. Towards the end of the month I had our 
store of seal meat and blubber brought aboard. The depth as 
recorded by a sounding on the last day of March was 256 
fathoms. The continuous shoaling from. 606 fathoms in a drift 
of 39 miles N. 26° W. in thirty days was interesting. The 
sea shoaled as we went north, either to east or to west, and 
the fact suggested that the contom'-lines ran east and west, 
roughly. Oxix total drift between January 19, when the ship 
was frozen in. and March 31, a period of seventy-one days, 
had been 95 miles in a N. 80° W. direction. The icebergs 
around us had not changed their relative positions. 
The sun sank lower in the sky, the temperatures became 
lower, and the Endurance felt the grip of the icy hand 
of winter. Two north-easterly gales in the early part of 
April assisted to consolidate the pack. The young 
ice was thickening rapidly, and though leads were visible 
occasionally from the ship, no opening of a considerable size 
appeared in our neighbourhood. In the early morning of 
April 1 we listened again for the wireless signals from Port 
Stanley. The crew had lashed three 20-ft. rickers to the mast- 
heads in order to increase the spread of our aerials, but still we 
failed to hear anything. The rickers had to come down subse- 
43 
