5? 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [December 
Sit. N. $ E. 8. 5'. — No change. The wind still steady 
from the S.W., with a clear sky and even barometer. 
It looks as though it might last any time. This is sheer 
bad luck. We have let the fires die out ; there are bergs 
to leeward and we must take our chance of clearing them 
— we cannot go on wasting coal. 
There is not a vestige of swell, and with the wind in this 
direction there certainly ought to be if the open water 
was reasonably close. No, it looks as though we'd struck 
a streak of real bad luck ; that fortune has determined 
to put every difficulty in our path. We have less than 
300 tons of coal left in a ship that simply eats coal. It's 
alarming — and then there are the ponies going steadily 
down-hill in condition. The only encouragement is the 
persistence of open water to the east and south-east to 
south ; big lanes of open water can be seen in that position, 
but we cannot get to them in this pressed-up pack. 
Atkinson has discovered a new tapeworm in the 
intestines of the Adelie penguin — a very tiny worm one- 
eighth of an inch in length with a propeller-shaped head. 
A crumb of comfort comes on finding that we have not 
drifted to the eastward appreciably. 
Friday, December 23. — The wind fell light at about ten 
last night and the ship swung round. Sail was set on the 
fore, and she pushed a few hundred yards to the north, but 
soon became jammed again. This brought us dead to wind- 
ward of and close to a large berg with the wind steadily 
increasing. Not a very pleasant position, but also not one 
that caused much alarm. We set all sail, and with this 
help the ship slowly carried the pack round, pivoting on 
