I9IO] 
A CALM 
7' 
clewed up, and at eleven we stopped to sound. The 
sounding showed II 11 fathoms — we appear to be on the 
edge of the continental shelf. Nelson got some samples 
and temperatures. 
The sun is bursting through the misty sky and warming 
the air. The snowstorm had covered the ropes with an 
icy sheet — this is now peeling off and falling with a clatter 
to the deck, from which the moist slush is rapidly evaporat- 
ing. In a few hours the ship will be dry — much to our 
satisfaction ; it is very wretched when, as last night, 
there is slippery wet snow underfoot and on every object 
one touches. 
Our run has exceeded our reckoning by much. I feel 
confident that our speed during the last two days had been 
greatly under-estimated, and so it has proved. We ought 
to be off C. Crozier on New Year's Day. 
8 p.m. — Our calm soon came to an end, the breeze at 
3 p.m. coming strong from the S.S.W., dead in our teeth — 
a regular southern blizzard. We are creeping along a bare 
2 knots. I bcein to wonder if fortune will ever turn her 
o 
wheel. On every possible occasion she seems to have 
decided against us. Of course, the ponies are feeling the 
motion as we pitch in a short, sharp sea — it's damnable 
for them and disgusting for us. 
Summary of the Pack 
We may be said to have entered the pack at 4 p.m. 
on the 9th in latitude 65J S. We left it at 1 a.m. on 30th 
in latitude 71 h S. We have taken twenty days and some 
odd hours to get through, and covered in a direct line over 
