44 SCOOTS LAST EXPEDITION [December 
doubtless including old floes in their mass, have now 
enormously increased in area. 
A floe which we have just passed must have been a 
mile across; this argues lack of swell and from that one 
might judge the open water to be very far. We made 
progress in a fairly good direction this morning, but the 
outlook is bad again — the ice seems to be closing. Again 
patience, we must go on steadily working through. 
5.30. — We passed two immense bergs in the after- 
noon watch, the first of an irregular tabular form. The 
stratified surface had clearly faulted. I suggest that an 
uneven bottom to such a berg giving unequal buoyancy 
to parts causes this faulting. The second berg was domed, 
having a twin peak. These bergs are still a puzzle. I 
rather cling to my original idea that they become domed 
when stranded and isolated. 
These two bergs had left long tracks of open water 
in the pack. We came through these making nearly 
3 knots, but, alas ! only in a direction which carried us 
a little east of south. It was difficult to get from one 
tract to another, but the tracts themselves were quite 
clear of ice. I noticed with rather a sinking that the 
floes on either side of us were assuming gigantic areas ; 
one or two could not have been less than 2 or 3 miles across. 
It seemed to point to very distant open water. 
But an observation which gave greater satisfaction 
was a steady reduction in the thickness of the floes. At 
first they were still much pressed up and screwed. One 
saw lines and heaps of pressure dotted over the surface 
of the larger floes, but it was evident from the upturned 
