SOUTH 
the smaller pieces. Constant rain and snow squalls blotted 
out the stars and soaked us through, and at times it was only 
by shouting to each other that we managed to keep the boats 
together. There was no sleep for anybody owing to the severe 
cold, and we dare not pull fast enough to keep ourselves warm 
since we were unable to see more than a few yards ahead. 
Occasionally the ghostly shadows of silver, snow, and fulmar 
petrels flashed close to us, and all around we could hear the 
killers blowing, their short, sharp hisses sounding like sudden 
escapes of steam. The killers were a source of anxiety, for a 
boat could easily have been capsized by one of them coming 
up to blow. Tliey would throw aside in a nonchalant fashion 
pieces of ice nmch bigger than our boats when they rose to the 
surface, and we had an uneasy feeling that the white bottoms 
of the boats would look hke ice from below. Shipwrecked 
mariners drifting in the Antarctic seas would be things not 
dreamed of in the killers' philosophy, and might appear on 
closer examination to be tasty substitutes for seal and penguin. 
We certainly regarded the killers with misgivings. 
Early in the morning of April 12 the weather improved and 
the wind dropped. Dawn came with a clear sky, cold and 
fearless. I looked around at the faces of my companions in 
the James Caird and saw pinched and drawn features. The 
strain was beginning to tell. Wild sat at the rudder with the 
same calm, confident expression that he would have worn under 
happier conditions ; his steel-blue eyes looked out to the day 
ahead. All the people, though evidently suflermg, were doing 
their best to be cheerful, and the prospect of a hot breakfast 
was inspiriting. I told all the boats that immediately we could 
find a suitable floe the cooker would be started and hot milk 
and Bovril would soon fix everybody up. Away we rowed to 
the westward through open pack, floes of all shapes and sizes 
on every side of us, and every man not engaged in pulling 
looking eagerly for a suitable camping-place. I could gauge 
the desire for food of the different members by the eagerness 
they displayed in pointing out to me the floes they considered 
exactly suited to our purpose. The temperature was about 
10° Fahr., and the Burberry suits of the rowers crackled as the 
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