Very little can happen in the personal affairs of our company in this comparatively dull time, but it is good to see the steady progress that proceeds unconsciously in cementing the happy relationship that exists between the members of the party.  Never could there have been a greater freedom from quarrels and trouble of all sorts.  I have not heard a harsh word or seen a black look.  A spirit of tolerance and good humour pervades the whole community, and it is glorious to realise that men can live under conditions of hardship, monotony, and danger in such bountiful good comradeship.

Preparations are now being made for Christmas festivities.  It is curious to think that we have already passed the longest day in the southern year.

Saw a whale this morning—­estimated 25 to 30 feet.  Wilson thinks a new species.  Find Adelie penguins in batches of twenty or so.  Do not remember having seen so many together in the pack.

After midnight, December 23.—­Steam was reported ready at 11 P.M.  After some pushing to and fro we wriggled out of our ice prison and followed a lead to opener waters.

We have come into a region where the open water exceeds the ice; the former lies in great irregular pools 3 or 4 miles or more across and connecting with many leads.  The latter, and the fact is puzzling, still contain floes of enormous dimensions; we have just passed one which is at least 2 miles in diameter.  In such a scattered sea we cannot go direct, but often have to make longish detours; but on the whole in calm water and with a favouring wind we make good progress.  With the sea even as open as we find it here it is astonishing to find the floes so large, and clearly there cannot be a southerly swell.  The floes have water pools as described this afternoon, and none average more than 2 feet in thickness.  We have two or three bergs in sight.

Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve.—­69 deg. 1’ S., 178 deg. 29’ W. S. 22 E. 29’; C. Crozier 551’.  Alas! alas! at 7 A.M. this morning we were brought up with a solid sheet of pack extending in all directions, save that from which we had come.  I must honestly own that I turned in at three thinking we had come to the end of our troubles; I had a suspicion of anxiety when I thought of the size of the floes, but I didn’t for a moment suspect we should get into thick pack again behind those great sheets of open water.

All went well till four, when the white wall again appeared ahead—­at five all leads ended and we entered the pack; at seven we were close up to an immense composite floe, about as big as any we’ve seen.  She wouldn’t skirt the edge of this and she wouldn’t go through it.  There was nothing to do but to stop and bank fires.  How do we stand?—­Any day or hour the floes may open up, leaving a road to further open water to the south, but there is no guarantee that one would not be hung up again and again in this manner as long as these great floes exist.  In a fortnight’s time the floes will have crumbled somewhat, and in many places the ship will be able to penetrate them.