ands. Bordering the coast there was a
linear group of islets and outcropping rocks at which we had hoped to
touch. The wind continued to blow so hard that the idea was abandoned
and our course was directed towards the north-west to clear a submerged
reef which had been discovered in January 1912.

The wind and sea arose during the night, causing the ship to roll in a
reckless fashion. Yet the celebration of New Year's Eve was not marred,
and lusty choruses came up from the ward-room till long after midnight.
Next morning at breakfast our ranks had noticeably thinned through the
liveliness of the ship, but it is wonderful how large an assembly we
mustered for the New Year's dinner, and how cheerfully the toast was
drunk to "The best year we have ever had!"

On January 2, 1914, fast ice and the mainland were sighted. The course
was changed to the south-west so as to bring the ship within a girdle
of loose ice disposed in big solid chunks and small pinnacled floes.
A sounding realized two hundred fathoms some ten miles off the coast,
which stretched like a lofty bank of yellow sand along the southern
horizon. On previous occasions we had not been able to see so much of
the coastline in this longitude owing to the compactness of the ice, and
so we were able to definitely chart a longer tract at the western limit
of Adelie Land.

The ice became so thick and heavy as the 'Aurora' pressed southward that
she was forced at last to put about and steer for more open water. On
the way, a sounding was made in two hundred and fifty fathoms, but a
dredging was unsuccessful owing to the fact that insufficient cable was
paid out in going from two hundred and fifty fathoms to deeper water.

Our north-westerly course ran among a great number of very long tabular
bergs, which suggested the possibility of a neighbouring glacier-tongue
as their origin.

At ten o'clock on the evening of the 2nd, a mountain of ice with a high
encircling bastion passed to starboard. It rose to a peak, flanked by
fragments toppling in snowy ruin. The pyramidal summit was tinged the
palest lilac in the waning light; the mighty pallid walls were streaked
and blotched with deep azure; the green swell sucked and thundered in
the wave-worn caverns. Chaste snow-birds swam through the pure air, and
the whole scene was sacred.

A tropical day in the pack-ice! Sunday January 4 was clear and perfectly
still, and the sun shone powerfully. On the previous day we had e