SOUTH 
help to open the ice and form leads through which we might 
escape to open water. So I ordered a practice lamiching of 
the boats and stowage of food and stores in. them. This was 
very satisfactory. We cut a slipway from our floe into a lead 
which ran alongside, and the boats took the water like a bird," 
as one sailor remarked. Our hopes were high in anticipation 
of an early release. A blizzard sprang up, increasing the next 
day and burying tents and packing-cases in the drift. On Decem- 
ber 12 it had moderated somewhat and veered to the south-east, 
and the next day the blizzard had ceased, but a good steady 
wind from south and south-west continued to blow us north. 
" December 15, 1915. — The continuance of southerly winds is 
exceeding our best hopes, and raising our spirits in proportion. 
Prospects could not be brighter than they are just now. The 
environs of our floe are continually changing. Some days we are 
almost surrounded by small open leads, preventing us from 
crossing over to the adjacent floes." After two more days our 
fortune changed, and a strong north-easterly wind brought " a 
beastly cold, windy day " and drove us back three and a 
quarter miles. Soon, however, the wind once more veered to 
the south and south-west. These high temperatures, combined 
with the strong changeable winds that we had had of late, 
led me to conclude that the ice all around us was rotting and 
breaking up and that the moment of our deliverance from the 
icymaw of the Antarctic was at hand. 
On December 20, after discussing the question with Wild, 
I informed all hands that I intended to try and make a march 
to the west to reduce the distance between us and Paulet 
Island. A buzz of pleasurable anticipation went round the 
camp, and every one was anxious to get on the move. So 
the next day I set off with Wild, Crean, and Hurley, with dog 
teams, to the westward to survey the route. After travelling 
about seven miles we mounted a small berg, and there as far 
as we could see stretched a series of immense flat floes from 
half a mile to a mile across, separated from each other by 
pressure-ridges which seemed easily negotiable with pick and 
shovel. The only place that appeared likely to be formidable 
was^a very rauch^cracked-up area between the old floe that we 
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