SOUTH 
the egg is resting on the feet during the incubation period. The 
threat of a stiff blow " aroused hopes of release several times, 
but the blizzard — probably the first Antarctic blizzard that 
was ever longed for— did not arrive. New Year's Day found 
Stenhouse and other men just recovering from an attack of 
snow-blindness, contracted by making an excursion across the 
floes without snow-goggles. 
At the end of the first week in January the ship was in 
lat, 65° 45' S. The pack was well broken a mile from the ship, 
and the ice was rolling fast. Under the bows and stern the 
pools w^ere growing and stretching away in long lanes to the 
west. A seal came up to blow under the stern on the 6th, 
proving that there was an opening in the sunken ice there. 
Stenhouse was economizing in food. No breakfast was served 
on the ship, and seal or penguin meat was used for at least one 
of the two meals later in the day. All hands were short of 
clothing, but Stenhouse was keeping intact the sledging gear 
intended for the use of the shore party. Strong, variable winds 
on the 9th raised hopes again, and on the morning of the 10th 
the ice appeared to be well broken from half a mile to a mile 
distant from the ship in all directions. " It seems extraordinary 
that the ship should be held in an almost unbroken floe of 
about a mile square, the more so as this patch was completely 
screwed and broken during the smash in July, and contains 
many faults. In almost any direction at a distance of half a 
mile from the ship there are pressure-ridges of eight-inch ice 
piled twenty feet high. It was provident that although so near 
these ridges w^ere escaped." 
The middle of January was passed and the Aurora lay still 
in the ice. The period of continuous day was drawing towards 
its close, and there was an appreciable twihght at midnight. 
A dark w^ater-sky could be seen on the northern horizon. The 
latitude on January 24 was 65° 39|' S. Towards the end of 
the month Stenhouse ordered a thorough overhaul of the stores 
and general preparations for a move. The supply of flour and 
butter w^as ample. Other stores were running low, and the 
crew lost no opportunity of capturing seals and penguins. 
Adehes were travelhng to the east-south-east in considerable 
328 
