were cast over the ice, giving it a softer and much more beautiful appearance.  Ponting was given a chance to get some cinema films of the Barrier while we were cruising around, and then we stopped in the little bay where the Ice Barrier joins Cape Crozier, lowered a boat, and Captain Scott, Wilson, myself, and several others went inshore in a whaler.  We were, however, unable to land as the swell was rather too heavy for boat work.  We saw an Emperor penguin chick and a couple of adult Emperors, besides many Adelie penguins and skua-gulls.  We pulled along close under the great cliffs which frown over the end of the Great Ice Barrier.  They contrasted strangely in their blackness with the low crystal ice cliffs of the Barrier itself.  In one place we were splashed by the spray from quite a large waterfall, and one realised that the summer sun, beating down on those black foothills, must be melting enormous quantities of ice and snow.  A curious ozone smell, which must have been the stench of the guano from the penguin rookeries, was noticed, but land smells of any sort were pleasant enough now for it brought home to us the fact that we should shortly embark on yet another stage of the Expedition.

Pennell conned the ship close under the cliffs and followed the boat along the coast.  The “Terra Nova” was quite dwarfed by the great rocky bluffs and we realised the height of the cliffs for the first time.

Whilst we were prospecting Nelson obtained water-bottle samples and temperatures at 10, 50, 100, and 200 fathoms.  The deep water apparently continued to the foot of the cliff in most places but there were two or three tiny steep beaches close to the junction of the Barrier and Ross Island.

Captain Scott being satisfied that no landing was possible, we in the boat returned to the ship and proceeded in her to the penguin rookery, a mile or so farther west.  When half a mile from the shore, we found the bottom rapidly shoaling, the least depth being 9 1/2 fathoms.  Several small bergs were ashore hereabouts, but the swell breaking on the beach plainly told us that a landing was out of the question.  After carefully searching the shore with glasses while the ship steamed slowly along it all, ideas of a landing were abandoned and we set course for McMurdo Sound.  As soon as the ship was headed for her new destination we commenced to make a running survey of the coast to Cape Bird.  This took until ten o’clock at night, and we found a great bight existed in Ross Island which quite changed its shape on the map.  After 10 p.m. we ran into some fairly heavy pack ice, gave up surveying, and had a meal.

I went up to the crow’s-nest in order to work the ship to the best advantage, and spent eleven hours on end there, but the excitement of getting the “Terra Nova” round Cape Bird and into McMurdo Sound made the time fly.  Occasionally the ship crashed heavily as she charged her way through the ice masses which skirted the shore.  Whilst I conned the ship leadsmen sounded carefully, and I was able to work her close in to the coast near Cape Bird and avoid some heavy ice which we could never have forced.  At 4.30 a.m.  I broke through the Cape Bird ice-field and worked the ship on as far as Cape Royds, which was passed about 6.30 a.m.  Looking through our binoculars we noticed Shackleton’s winter hut looking quite new and fresh.