A blizzard from the east-north-east prevented us leaving the shelter of the berg on the following day (Sunday, January 17).  The weather was clear, but the gale drove dense clouds of snow off the land and obscured the coast-line most of the time.  “The land, seen when the air is clear, appears higher than we thought it yesterday; probably it rises to 3000 ft. above the head of the glacier.  Caird Coast, as I have named it, connects Coats’ Land, discovered by Bruce in 1904, with Luitpold Land, discovered by Filchner in 1912.  The northern part is similar in character to Coats’ Land.  It is fronted by an undulating barrier, the van of a mighty ice-sheet that is being forced outward from the high interior of the Antarctic Continent and apparently is sweeping over low hills, plains, and shallow seas as the great Arctic ice-sheet once pressed over Northern Europe.  The barrier surface, seen from the sea, is of a faint golden brown colour.  It terminates usually in cliffs ranging from 10 to 300 ft. in height, but in a very few places sweeps down level with the sea.  The cliffs are of dazzling whiteness, with wonderful blue shadows.  Far inland higher slopes can be seen, appearing like dim blue or faint golden fleecy clouds.  These distant slopes have increased in nearness and clearness as we have come to the south-west, while the barrier cliffs here are higher and apparently firmer.  We are now close to the junction with Luitpold Land.  At this southern end of the Caird Coast the ice-sheet, undulating over the hidden and imprisoned land, is bursting down a steep slope in tremendous glaciers, bristling with ridges and spikes of ice and seamed by thousands of crevasses.  Along the whole length of the coast we have seen no bare land or rock.  Not as much as a solitary nunatak has appeared to relieve the surface of ice and snow.  But the upward sweep of the ice-slopes towards the horizon and the ridges, terraces, and crevasses that appear as the ice approaches the sea tell of the hills and valleys that lie below.”

The ‘Endurance’ lay under the lee of the stranded berg until 7 a.m. on January 18.  The gale had moderated by that time, and we proceeded under sail to the south-west through a lane that had opened along the glacier-front.  We skirted the glacier till 9.30 a.m., when it ended in two bays, open to the north-west but sheltered by stranded bergs to the west.  The coast beyond trended south-south-west with a gentle land-slope.

“The pack now forces us to go west 14 miles, when we break through a long line of heavy brash mixed with large lumps and ‘growlers’ We do this under the fore-topsail only, the engines being stopped to protect the propeller.  This takes us into open water, where we make S. 50° W. for 24 miles.  Then we again encounter pack which forces us to the north-west for 10 miles, when we are brought up by heavy snow-lumps, brash, and large, loose floes.  The character of the pack shows change.  The floes are very thick and are covered by deep snow.  The brash between the floes is so thick and heavy that we cannot push through without a great expenditure of power, and then for a short distance only.  We therefore lie to for a while to see if the pack opens at all when this north-east wind ceases.”