s was made to the
south; the vessel dodging icebergs and detached floes.

The discovery of a comparatively open sea southward of the main pack was
a matter of some moment. As later voyages and the observations of the
Western Party showed, this tract of sea is a permanent feature of the
neighbourhood. I have called it the Davis Sea, after the captain of the
'Aurora', in appreciation of the fact that he placed it on the chart.

At noon, on February 13, in latitude 65 degrees 54 1/2' S. longitude 94
degrees 25' E., the western face of a long, floating ice-tongue loomed
into view. There were five hundred fathoms of water off its extremity,
and the cliffs rose vertically to one hundred feet. Soon afterwards land
was clearly defined low in the south extending to east and west. This
was thenceforth known as Queen Mary Land.

The sphere of operations of the German expedition of 1902 was near at
hand, for its vessel, the 'Gauss', had wintered, frozen in the pack,
one hundred and twenty-five miles to the west. It appeared probable that
Queen Mary Land would be found to be continuous** with Kaiser Wilhelm
II Land, which the Germans had reached by a sledging journey from their
ship across the intervening sea-ice.

** Such was eventually proved to be the case.

The 'Aurora' followed the western side of the ice-tongue for about
twenty miles in a southerly direction, at which point there was a
white expanse of floe extending right up to the land. Wild and Kennedy,
walking several miles towards the land, estimated that it was about
twenty-five miles distant. As the surface over which they travelled was
traversed by cracks and liable to drift away to sea, all projects of
landing there had to be abandoned; furthermore, it was discovered that
the ice-tongue, alongside of which the ship lay, was a huge iceberg. A
landing on it had been contemplated, but was now out of question.

The main difficulty which arose at this juncture was the failing
coal-supply. It was high time to return to Hobart, and, if a western
base was to be formed at all, Wild's party would have to be landed
without further delay. After a consultation, Davis and Wild decided that
under the circumstances an attempt should be made to gain a footing on
the adjacent shelf-ice, if nothing better presented itself.

The night was passed anchored to the floe, on the edge of which were
numerous Emperor penguins and Weddell seals. A fresh south-easterly
wind blew on F