In any case, if it holds or not, it will be a great relief to feel that there is this plain of negotiable ice behind one.

Saw two sea leopards this evening, one in the water making short, lazy dives under the floes.  It had a beautiful sinuous movement.

I have asked Pennell to prepare a map of the pack; it ought to give some idea of the origin of the various forms of floes, and their general drift.  I am much inclined to think that most of the pressure ridges are formed by the passage of bergs through the comparatively young ice.  I imagine that when the sea freezes very solid it carries bergs with it, but obviously the enormous mass of a berg would need a great deal of stopping.  In support of this view I notice that most of the pressure ridges are formed by pieces of a sheet which did not exceed one or two feet in thickness—­also it seems that the screwed ice which we have passed has occurred mostly in the regions of bergs.  On one side of the tabular berg passed yesterday pressure was heaped to a height of 15 feet—­it was like a ship’s bow wave on a large scale.  Yesterday there were many bergs and much pressure; last night no bergs and practically no pressure; this morning few bergs and comparatively little pressure.  It goes to show that the unconfined pack of these seas would not be likely to give a ship a severe squeeze.

Saw a young Emperor this morning, and whilst trying to capture it one of Wilson’s new whales with the sabre dorsal fin rose close to the ship.  I estimated this fin to be 4 feet high.

It is pretty to see the snow petrel and Antarctic petrel diving on to the upturned and flooded floes.  The wash of water sweeps the Euphausia [3] across such submerged ice.  The Antarctic petrel has a pretty crouching attitude.

    Notes On Nicknames

    Evans Teddy
    Wilson Bill, Uncle Bill, Uncle
    Simpson Sunny Jim
    Ponting Ponco
    Meares
    Day
    Campbell The Mate, Mr. Mate
    Pennell Penelope

    Rennick Parnie
    Bowers Birdie
    Taylor Griff and Keir Hardy
    Nelson Marie and Bronte
    Gran
    Cherry-Garrard Cherry
    Wright Silas, Toronto
    Priestley Raymond
    Debenham Deb
    Bruce
    Drake Francis
    Atkinson Jane, Helmin, Atchison
    Oates Titus, Soldier, ‘Farmer Hayseed’ (by Bowers)
    Levick Toffarino, the Old Sport
    Lillie Lithley, Hercules, Lithi_6_

Tuesday, December 20.—­Noon 68 deg. 41’ S., 179 deg. 28’ W. Made good S. 36 W. 58; C. Crozier S. 20 W. 563’.—­The good conditions held up to midnight last night; we went from lead to lead with only occasional small difficulties.  At 9 o’clock we passed along the western edge of a big stream of very heavy bay ice—­such ice as would come out late in the season from the inner reaches and bays of Victoria Sound, where the snows drift deeply.  For a moment one imagined a return to our bad conditions, but we passed this heavy stuff in an hour and came again to the former condition, making our way in leads between floes of great area.