although frequently lanced and cut with boat spades,
made away with their prey.

Inclined to believe it rarely attacks larger cetaceans.

Possessed of great swiftness.

Sometimes seen peering above the surface with a seal in their bristling
jaws, shaking and crushing their victims and swallowing them apparently
with gusto.

Tear white whales into pieces.

Ponting has been ravished yesterday by a view of the ship seen from a
big cave in an iceberg, and wished to get pictures of it. He succeeded
in getting some splendid plates. This fore-noon I went to the iceberg
with him and agreed that I had rarely seen anything more beautiful
than this cave. It was really a sort of crevasse in a tilted berg
parallel to the original surface; the strata on either side had bent
outwards; through the back the sky could be seen through a screen
of beautiful icicles--it looked a royal purple, whether by contrast
with the blue of the cavern or whether from optical illusion I do
not know. Through the larger entrance could be seen, also partly
through icicles, the ship, the Western Mountains, and a lilac sky;
a wonderfully beautiful picture.

Ponting is simply entranced with this view of Mt. Erebus, and with
the two bergs in the foreground and some volunteers he works up
foregrounds to complete his picture of it.

I go to bed very satisfied with the day's work, but hoping for better
results with the improved organisation and familiarity with the work.

To-day we landed the remainder of the woodwork of the hut, all the
petrol, paraffin and oil of all descriptions, and a quantity of
oats for the ponies besides odds and ends. The ponies are to begin
work to-morrow; they did nothing to-day, but the motor sledges did
well--they are steadying down to their work and made nothing but
non-stop runs to-day. One begins to believe they will be reliable,
but I am still fearing that they will not take such heavy loads as
we hoped.

Day is very pleased and thinks he's going to do wonders, and Nelson
shares his optimism. The dogs find the day work terribly heavy and
Meares is going to put them on to night work.

The framework of the hut is nearly up; the hands worked till 1
A.M. this morning and were at it again at 7 A.M.--an instance of the
spirit which actuates everyone. The men teams formed of the after-guard
brought in good loads, but they are not yet in condition. The hut is
about 11 or 12 feet above the water as far as I can judge. I don'