i9ii} CAPE EVANS AS WINTER STATION 89 
increasing in thickness, and there was no wintering spot 
to aim for but Cape Armitage.* ' I have never seen the 
ice of the Sound in such a condition or the land so free 
from snow. Taking these facts in conjunction with the 
exceptional warmth of the air, I came to the conclusion 
that it had been an exceptionally warm summer. At 
this point it was evident that we had a considerable choice 
of wintering spots. We could have gone to either of the 
small islands, to the mainland, the Glacier Tongue, or 
pretty well anywhere except Hut Point. My main wish 
was to choose a place that would not be easily cut off 
from the Barrier, and my eye fell on a cape which we used 
to call the Skuary a little behind us. It was separated 
from old Discovery quarters by two deep bays on either 
side of the Glacier Tongue, and I thought that these 
bays would remain frozen until late in the season, and 
that when they froze over again the ice would soon become 
firm.' I called a council and put these propositions. 
To push on to the Glacier Tongue and winter there ; to 
push west to the 1 tombstone ' ice and to make our way 
to an inviting spot to the northward of the cape we used 
to call i the Skuary.' I favoured the latter course, and 
on discussion we found it obviously the best, so we turned 
back close around Inaccessible Island and steered for 
the fast ice off the Cape at full speed. After piercing 
a small fringe of thin ice at the edge of the fast floe the 
ship's stem struck heavily on hard bay ice about a mile 
and a half from the shore. Here was a road to the Cape 
• The extreme S. j>oint of the Island, a dozen miles farther, on one 
of whose minor headlands, Hut Point, stood the Discovery hut. 
