d regular floes, being ten to twelve feet above water and, as far
as one could judge, about 50 feet below. The water here was beautifully
clear.

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 lunc