We had now reached latitude 68 degrees and, as penguins were plentiful, Archer and Clissold, the cooks, made us penguin stews and “hooshes” to eke out our fresh provisions.  Concerning the penguins, they frequently came and inspected the ship.  One day Wilson and I chased some, but they continually kept just out of our reach; then Uncle Bill lay down on the snow, and when one, out of curiosity, came up to him he grabbed it by the leg and brought it to the ship, protesting violently, for all the world like a little old man in a dinner jacket.  Atkinson and Wilson found a new kind of tapeworm in this penguin, with a head like a propeller.  This worm has since been named after one of us!

We were now down to under 300 tons of coal, some of which had perforce to be landed, in addition to the 30 tons of patent fuel which were under the forward stores.  I had no idea that Captain Scott could be so patient.  He put the best face on everything, although he certainly was disappointed in the “Terra Nova” and her steaming capacity.  He could not well have been otherwise when comparing her with his beloved “Discovery.”  Whilst in the pack our leader spent his time in getting hold of the more detailed part of our scientific programme and mildly tying the scientists in knots.

We had some good views of whales in the pack.  Whenever a whale was sighted Wilson was called to identify it unless it proved to belong to one of the more common species.  We saw Sibbald’s whale; Rorquals, and many killer whales, but no Right whales were properly identified this trip.

I very much wanted to show Scott the island we had discovered in the first Antarctic Relief Expedition and named after him, but when in its vicinity snow squalls and low visibility prevented this.

On the 22nd Bowers, Wright, Griffith Taylor and myself chased a lot of young penguins on the ice and secured nine for our Christmas dinner.  We spent a very pleasant Christmas this year, devoting great attention to food.  We commenced the day with kidneys from our frozen meat store.  Captain Scott conducted the Christmas church service and all hands attended since we had no steam up and were fast held in the pack.  The ward-room was decorated with our sledge flags and a new blue tablecloth generally brightened up our Mess.  We had fresh mutton for lunch and the seamen had their Christmas dinner at this time.  The afterguard dined at 6.30 on fresh penguin, roast beef, plum pudding, mince pies, and asparagus, while we had champagne, port, and liqueurs to drink and an enormous box of Fry’s fancy chocolates for dessert.  This “mortal gorge” was followed by a sing-song lasting until midnight, nearly every one, even the most modest, contributing.  Around the Christmas days we made but insignificant headway, only achieving thirty-one miles in the best part of the week, but on the 29th the floes became thin and the ice showed signs of recent formation, though intermingled with heavier floes of old and rotten ice.  There was much diatomacea in the rotten floes.  About 2.40 a.m. the ship broke through into a lead of open water six miles in length.