he 27th, and the sun
was serene in a blue sky. Up went the sail and with a feather-weight
load we strode off for the depot eighteen miles distant. Three wide
rifts in the sea-ice exercised our ingenuity during the day's march, but
by the time the sun was in the south-west the sledge was sawing through
the sandy snow of the depot hill. It was unfortunate that the food of
this depot had been cached so far out of our westerly course, as the
time expended in recovering it might have been profitably given to
a survey of the mainland east of Penguin Point. At 6.20 P.M., after
eighteen and a quarter miles, the food-bag was sighted on the mound, and
that night the dinner at our one-hundred-and-fifty-two-mile depot was
marked by some special innovations.

Penguin Point, thirty miles away, bore W. 15 degrees S., and next day
we made a bid for it by a march of sixteen miles. There was eleven days'
ration on the sledge to take us to Mount Murchison, ninety miles away;
consequently the circuitous route to the land was held to be a safe
"proposition."

Many rock faces became visible, and I was able to fix numerous prominent
points with the theodolite.

At three miles off the coast, the surface became broken by ridges, small
bergs and high, narrow cupolas of ice surrounded by deep moats. One of
these was very striking. It rose out of a wind-raked hollow to a height
of fifty feet; just the shape of an ancient Athenian helmet. McLean took
a photograph.

As at Horn Bluff, the ice became thinner and freer of snow as we drew
near the Point. The rocky wall under which the tent was raised proved to
be three hundred feet high, jutting out from beneath the slopes of ice.
From here the coast ran almost south on one side and north-west on the
other. On either hand there were dark faces corniced with snow.

The next day was devoted to exploration. Adelie penguins waddled about
the tide-crack over which we crossed to examine the rock, which was of
coarse-grained granite, presenting great, vertical faces. Hundreds of
snow petrels flew about and some stray skua gulls were seen.

Near the camp, on thick ice, were several large blocks of granite which
had floated out from the shore and lay each in its pool of thaw-water,
covered with serpulae and lace coral.

Correll, our Izaak Walton, had brought a fishing-line and some
penguin-meat. He stopped near the camp fishing while McLean and I
continued down the coast, examining the outcrops. The type