SOUTH 
broken up to sledge over, it appeared as if we should be carried 
past it. By Marcli 17 we were exactly on a level with Paulet 
Island but sixty miles to the east. It might have been six 
hundred for all the chance that we had of reaching it by 
sledging across the broken sea-ice in its present condition. 
Our thoughts now turned to the Danger Islands, thirty-five 
miles away. " It seems that we are likely to drift up and down 
this coast from south-west to north-east and back again for some 
time yet before we finally clear the point of Joinville Island ; 
until we do we cannot hope for much opening up, as the ice 
must be very congested against the south-ea,st coast of the 
island, otherwise our failure to respond to the recent south- 
easterly gale cannot be well accounted for. In support of this 
there has been some very heavy pressure on the north-east side 
of our floe, one immense block being up-ended to a height of 
25 ft. We saw a Dominican gull fly over to-day, the first we 
have seen since leaving South Georgia ; it is another sign of 
our proximity to land. We cut steps in this 25-ft. slab, and 
it makes a fine look-out. When the weather clears we confi- 
dently expect to see land." 
A heavy blizzard obscured our view till March 23. ' Land 
in sight ' was reported this morning. We were sceptical, but 
this afternoon it showed up unmistakably to the west, and 
there can be no further doubt about it. It is Joinville Island, 
and its serrated mountain ranges, all snow-clad, are just visible 
on the horizon. This barren, inhospitable-looking land would 
be a haven of refuge to us if we could but reach it. It would 
be ridiculous to make the attempt though, with the ice all 
broken up as it is. It is too loose and broken to march over, 
yet not open enough to be able to launch the boats." For 
the next two or three days we saw ourselves slowly drifting 
past the land, longing to reach it yet prevented from doing 
so by the ice between, and towards the end of March we saw 
Mount Haddington fade away into the distance. 
Our hopes were now centred on Elephant Island or Clarence 
Island, which lay 100 miles almost due north of us. 
If we failed to reach either of them we might try for South 
Georgia, but our chances of reaching it would be very small. 
116 
