CHAPTER XVI 
THE AURORA'S DRIFT 
After Mackintosh left the Aurora on January 25, 1915, Sten- 
house kept the ship with difl&culty off Tent Island. The ice- 
anchors would not hold, owing to the continual breaking away 
of the pack, and he found it necessary much of the time to 
steam slow ahead against the floes. The third sledging party, 
under Cope, left the ship on the afternoon of the 31st, with the 
motor-tractor towing two sledges, and disappeared towards 
Hut Point. Cope's party returned to the ship on February 2 
and left again on February 6, after a delay caused by the loose 
condition of the ice. Two days later, after more trouble with 
drifting floes, Stenhouse proceeded to Cape Evans, where he 
took a line of soundings for the winter quarters. During the 
next month the Aurora occupied various positions in the 
neighbourhood of Cape Evans. No secure moorings were avail- 
able. The ship had to keep clear of thi'eatening floes, dodge 
" growlers " and drifting bergs, and find shelter from the 
blizzards. A sudden shift of wind on February 24, when the 
ship was sheltering in the lee of Glacier Tongue, caiised her to 
be jammed hard against the low ice off the glacier, but no 
damage was done. Early in March Stenhouse sent moorings 
ashore at Cape Evans, and on March 11 he proceeded to Hut 
Point, where he dropped anchor in Discovery Bay. Here he 
landed stores, amounting to about two months' full rations for 
twelve men, and embarked Spencer-Smith, Stevens, Hook, 
Richards, Nimiis, and Gaze, with two dogs. He returned to 
Cape Evans that evening. 
" We had a bad time when we were ' sculling ' about the 
Soimd, first endeavouring to make Hut Point to land provisions, 
and then looking for winter quarters in the neighbourhood of 
Glacier Tongue/' wrote Stenhouse afterwards, The ice kept 
304 
