THE AURORA'S DRIFT 
of tlie 9th. " So this is the end of our attempt to winter in 
McMiirdo Sound, Hard luck after four months' buSeting, for 
the last seven weeks of which we nursed our moorings. Our 
present situation calls for increasing vigilance. It is five weeks 
to the middle of winter. There is no sun, the light is little 
and uncertain, and we may expect many bUzzards. We have 
no immediate water-supply, as only a small quantity of fresh 
ice was aboard when we broke diift. 
The Aurora is fast in the pack and drifting God knows 
where. Well, there are prospects of a most interesting winter 
drift. We are all in good health, except Grady, whose rib is 
mending rapidly ; we have good spirits and we will get through. 
But what of the poor beggars at Cape Evans, and the Southern 
Party ? It is a dismal prospect for them. There are sufficient 
provisions at Cape Evans, Hut Point, and, I suppose, Cape 
Royds, but we have the remaining Burberrys, clothing, etc., 
for next year's sledging still on board. I see little prospect of 
getting back to Cape Evans or anywhere in the Sound. We 
are short of coal and held firmly in the ice. T hope she drifts 
quickly to the north-east. Then we can endeavour to push 
through the pack and make for New Zealand, coal and return 
to the Barrier eastward of Cape Crozier. This could be done, 
I think, in the early spring, September. We must get back 
to aid the depot-laying next season." 
A violent blizzard raged on May 10 and 11. ''I never 
remember such wind-force," said Stenhouse. It was difficult 
to get along the deck." The weather moderated on the 12th, 
and a survey of the ship's position was possible. We are 
lying in a field of ice with our anchors and seventy-five fathoms 
of cable on each hanging at the bows. The after-moorings 
were frozen into the ice astern of us at Cape Evans. Previous 
to the date of our leaving our winter berth four small wires 
had parted. When we broke away the chain two of the heavy 
(4-in.) wires parted close to shore ; the other wire went at the 
butts. The chain and two wires are still fast in the ice and 
will have to be dug out. This morning we cleared the ice 
around the cables, but had to abandon the heaving-in, as the 
steam froze in the return pipes from the windlass exhaust, and 
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