beautiful, miniature harbour completely land-locked. The sun
shone gloriously in a blue sky as we stepped ashore on a charming
ice-quay--the first to set foot on the Antarctic continent between Cape
Adare and Gaussberg, a distance of one thousand eight hundred miles.

Wild and I proceeded to make a tour of exploration. The rocky area at
Cape Denison, as it was named, was found to be about one mile in
length and half a mile in extreme width. Behind it rose the inland ice,
ascending in a regular slope and apparently free of crevasses--an outlet
for our sledging parties in the event of the sea not firmly freezing
over. To right and left of this oasis, as the visitor to Adelie Land
must regard the welcome rock, the ice was heavily crevassed and fell
sheer to the sea in cliffs, sixty to one hundred and fifty feet in
height. Two small dark patches in the distance were the only evidences
of rock to relieve the white monotony of the coast.

In landing cargo on Antarctic shores, advantage is generally taken
of the floe-ice on to which the materials can be unloaded and at once
sledged away to their destination. Here, on the other hand, there was
open water, too shallow for the 'Aurora' to be moored alongside the
ice-foot. The only alternative was to anchor the ship at a distance
and discharge the cargo by boats running to the ideal harbour we had
discovered. Close to the boat harbour was suitable ground for the
erection of a hut, so that the various impedimenta would have to be
carried only a short distance. For supplies of fresh meat, in the
emergency of being marooned for a number of years, there were many
Weddell seals at hand, and on almost all the neighbouring ridges
colonies of penguins were busy rearing their young.64

As a station for scientific investigations, it offered a wider field
than the casual observer would have imagined. So it came about that the
Main Base was finally settled at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay.

We arrived on board at 8 P.M., taking a seal as food for the dogs.
Without delay, the motor-launch was dropped into the water, and both it
and the whale-boat loaded with frozen carcasses of mutton, cases of eggs
and other perishable goods.

While some of us went ashore in the motor-launch, with the whale-boat in
tow, the 'Aurora' steamed round the Mackellar Islets seeking for a good
anchorage under the icy barrier, immediately to the west of the boat
harbour. The day had been perfect, vibrant with s