ntered
a wide field of ice which had become so close and heavy that the ship
took till late in the evening to reach its northern fringe.

From January 5 onwards for two weeks we steamed steadily towards the
west, repeatedly changing course to double great sheets of pack which
streamed away to the north, pushing through them in other places where
the welcome "water-sky showed strong" ahead, making "southing" for days
following the trend of the ice, then grappling with it in the hope of
winning through to the land and at last returning to the western track
along the margin of brash which breaks the first swell of the Southern
Ocean.

The weather was mostly overcast with random showers of light snow and
mild variable winds on all but two days, when there was a "blow" of
forty miles per hour and a considerable sea in which the ship seemed
more active than usual.

Many soundings were taken, and their value lay in broadly [...] Of
course, too, we were supplementing the ship's previous work in these
latitudes.

[TEXT ILLUSTRATION]

Section Illustrating The Moat In The Antarctic Continental Shelf

One successful dredging in eighteen hundred fathoms brought up some
large erratics and coaly matter, besides a great variety of animal life.
It was instructive to find that the erratics were coated with a film of
manganese oxide derived from the sea-water. Several tow-nettings were
taken with large nets automatically closing at any desired depth through
the medium of a "messenger." Small crustaceans were plentiful on the
surface, but they were if anything more numerous at depths of fifty
to one hundred fathoms. Amongst the latter were some strongly
phosphorescent forms. The flying birds were "logged" daily by the
biologists. Emperor and Adelie penguins were occasionally seen, among
the floes as well as sea-leopards, crab-eater and Weddell seals.

Friday January 16 deserves mention as being a day full of incident. In
the morning a thin, cold fog hung along the pack whose edge determined
our course. Many petrels flew around, and on the brash-ice there were
dark swarms of terns--small birds with black-capped heads, dove-grey
backs and silvery-white breasts. They were very nervous of the ship,
rising in great numbers when it had approached within a few hundred
yards. One startled bird would fly up, followed by several more; then
a whole covey would disturb the rest of the flock. Hamilton managed to
shoot two of them from the fo