142 
THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 
WEDDELL SEAL EMERGING FROM AN ICE-HOLE. 
ONE or THE MOST ADMIRABLE OF THE MANY STRIKING PICTURES SECURED BY MR. PONTING 
ILLUSTRATING THE ANIMAL LIFE OF THE ANTARCTIC. 
that it could furnish forth several exploring 
parties and scientific outposts. While Scott 
and his parties were depot-laying in January 
-April, 1911, or away on the great Southern 
journey from the following November, 
geological parties went into the Western 
Mountains. Mention has been made of the 
first, consisting of Griffith Taylor, Debenham, 
Wright, and P.O. Evans, and how, having 
started on January 27th, they joined Scott at 
Hut Point on March 14th. They had crossed 
the Sound, explored and surveyed the Dry 
Valley, the Ferrar and the Koettlitz Glacier 
regions, planting stakes across the ice whereby 
the next comers could determine the move- 
ments of the glacier. The gravels below a 
promising region of limestones, rich in garnets, 
were washed for gold, but only magnetite 
was found. For spice of adventure they had 
their share of hair-breadth escapes when the 
sea-ice suddenly began to break up under 
their feet, and they had a race for their lives. 
On the second, Taylor and Debenham, with 
Gran and P.O. Ford, left on November 7th, 
1911, for Granite Harbour, farther north on 
the western side of McMurdo Sound, and 
