SOUTH 
the cove except by sea. The cliffs and glaciers around offered 
no practicable path towards the head of the bay. I arranged 
for one-hour watches during the remainder of the night and 
then took Crean's place among the sleeping men and got some 
sleep before the dawn came. 
The sea went down in the early hours of the morning 
(May 11), and after sunrise we were able to set about getting 
the boat ashore, first bracing ourselves for the task with another 
meal. We were all weak still. We cut off the topsides and took 
out all the movable gear. Then we waited for Byron's great 
ninth wave/' and when it lifted the James Caird in we held 
her and, by dint of great exertion, worked her round broadside 
to the sea. Inch by inch we dragged her up until we reached 
the fringe of the tussock-grass and knew that the boat was 
above high-water mark. The rise of the tide was about five 
feet, and at spring tide the water must have reached almost 
to the edge of the tussock-grass. The completion of this job 
removed our immediate anxieties, and we were free to examine 
om: surroundmgs and plan the next move. The day was bright 
and clear. 
King Haakon Bay is an eight-mile sound penetrating the 
coast of South Georgia in an easterly direction. We had noticed 
that the northern and southern sides of the sound were formed 
by steep mountain-ranges, their flanks furrowed by mighty 
glaciers, the outlets of the great ice-sheet of the interior. It 
was obvious that these glaciers and the precipitous slopes of 
the mountains barred our way inland from the cove. We must 
sail to the head of the sound. Swirling clouds and mist-wreaths 
had obscured our view of the sound when we were entering, 
but glimpses of snow-slopes had given us hope that an overland 
journey could be begun from that point. A few patches of 
very rough, tussocky land, dotted with little tarns, lay between 
the glaciers along the foot of the mountains, which were heavily 
scarred with scree-slopes. Several magnificent peaks and cve^gs 
gazed out across their snowy domains to the sparkling waters 
of the sound. 
Our cove lay a little inside the southern headland of King 
Haakon Bay. A narrow break in the cliffs, which were about 
182 
