82 
SCOUTS LAST EXPEDITION [January 
days, and Wilson thinks it meets the cliff in the same 
place. 
The Barrier takes a sharp turn back at 2 or 3 miles 
from the cliffs, runs back for half a mile, then west again 
with a fairly regular surface until within a few hundred 
yards of the cliffs ; the interval is occupied with a single 
high-pressure ridge — the evidences of pressure at the edge 
being less marked than I had expected. 
Ponting was very busy with cinematograph and 
camera. In the angle at the corner near the cliffs Rennick 
got a sounding of 140 fathoms and Nelson some tempera- 
tures and samples. When lowering the water bottle on one 
occasion the line suddenly became slack at 100 metres, 
then after a moment's pause began to run out again. We 
are curious to know the cause, and imagine the bottle 
struck a seal or whale. 
Meanwhile, one of the whale boats was lowered and 
Wilson, Griffith Taylor, Priestley, Evans, and I were pulled 
towards the shore. The after-guard are so keen that the 
proper boat's crew was displaced and the oars manned by 
Oatcs, Atkinson, and Cherry-Garrard, the latter catching 
several crabs. 
The swell made it impossible for us to land. I had hoped 
to see whether there was room to pass between the pressure 
ridge and the cliff, a route by which Royds once descended 
to the Emperor rookery ; as we approached the corner 
we saw that a large piece of sea floe ice had been jammed 
between the Barrier and the cliff and had buckled up till 
its under surface stood 3 or 4 ft. above the water. On top 
of this old floe we saw an old Emperor moulting and a 
