Part 67 (1/2)
Blake and Hamilton returned to the Shack on the 24th, but left again on the 30th, as they had some more photographic work to do in the vicinity of Green Valley and Sandy Bay.
Blake made a special trip to Sandy Bay on October 30 to bring back some geological specimens and other things he had left there, but on reaching the spot found that the old hut had been burned to the ground, apparently only a few hours before, since it was still smouldering. Many articles were destroyed, among which were two sleeping-bags, a s.e.xtant, gun, blankets, photographic plates, bird specimens and articles of clothing. It was presumed that rats had originated the fire from wax matches which had been left lying on a small shelf.
On November 9 we heard that the 'Aurora' would leave Hobart on the 19th for Antarctica, picking us up on the way and landing three men on the island to continue the wireless and meteorological work.
We sighted the 'Rachel Cohen' bearing down on the island on November 18, and at 5.15 P.M. she came to an anchorage in North-East Bay. She brought down the remainder of our coal and some salt for Hamilton for the preservation of specimens.
On the next night it was learned that the 'Aurora' had left Hobart on her way South, expecting to reach us about the 28th, as some sounding and dredging were being done en route.
Everybody now became very busy making preparations for departure. Time pa.s.sed very quickly, and November 28 dawned fine and bright. The 'Rachel Cohen', which had been lying in the bay loading oil, had her full complement on board by 10 A.M., and shortly afterwards we trooped across to say good-bye to Bauer and the other sealers, who were all returning to Hobart. It was something of a coincidence that they took their departure on the very day our s.h.i.+p was to arrive. Their many acts of kindness towards us will ever be recalled by the members of the party, and we look upon our harmonious neighbourly a.s.sociation together with feelings of great pleasure.
A keen look-out was then kept for signs of our own s.h.i.+p, but it was not until 8 P.M. that Blake, who was up on the hill side, called out, ”Here she comes,” and we climbed up to take in the goodly sight. Just visible, away in the north-west, there was a line of thin smoke, and in about half an hour the 'Aurora' dropped anchor in Ha.s.selborough Bay.
CHAPTER XXVIII THE HOMEWARD CRUISE
We bring no store of ingots, Of spice or precious stones; But what we have we gathered With sweat and aching bones.
KIPLING.
As we sat in the wardroom of the 'Aurora' exchanging the news of months long gone by, we heard from Captain Davis the story of his fair-weather trip from Hobart. The s.h.i.+p had left Australian waters on November 19, and, from the outset, the weather was quite ideal. Nothing of note occurred on the run to Macquarie Island, where a party of three men were landed and Ainsworth and his loyal comrades picked up. The former party, sent by the Australian Government, were to maintain wireless communication with Hobart and to send meteorological reports to the Commonwealth Weather Bureau. A week was spent at the island and all the collections were embarked, while Correll was enabled to secure some good colour photographs and Hurley to make valuable additions to his cinematograph film.
The 'Aurora' had pa.s.sed through the ”fifties” without meeting the usual gales, sighting the first ice in lat.i.tude 63 degrees 33' S., longitude 150 degrees 29' E. She stopped to take a sounding every twenty-four hours, adding to the large number already acc.u.mulated during her cruises over the vast basin of the Southern Ocean.
All spoke of the clear and beautiful days amid the floating ice and of the wonderful coloured sunsets; especially the photographers. The pack was so loosely disposed, that the s.h.i.+p made a straight course for Commonwealth Bay, steaming up to Cape Denison on the morning of December 14 to find us all eager to renew our claim on the big world up North.
There was a twenty-five-knot wind and a small sea when we pulled off in the whale-boat to the s.h.i.+p, but, as if conspiring to give us for once a gala-day, the wind fell off, the bay became blue and placid and the sun beat down in full thawing strength on the boundless ice and snow. The Adelians, if that may be used as a distinctive t.i.tle, sat on the warm deck and read letters and papers in voracious haste, with s.n.a.t.c.hes of the latest intelligence from the Macquarie Islanders and the s.h.i.+p's officers. No one could erase that day from the tablets of his memory.
Late in the afternoon the motor-launch went ash.o.r.e, and the first of the cargo was sent off. The weather remained serene and calm, and for the next six days, with the exception of a ”sixty-miler” for a few hours and a land breeze overnight, there was nothing to disturb the embarkation of our bulky impedimenta which almost filled the outer Hut. Other work went on apace. The skua gulls, snow and Wilson petrels were laying their eggs, and Hamilton went ash.o.r.e to secure specimens and to add to our already considerable collection of bird skins. Hunter had a fish-trap lowered from the forecastle, used a hand dredge from the s.h.i.+p, and did tow-netting occasionally from the launch in its journeys to and from the land. Hurley and Correll had bright suns.h.i.+ne to ensure good photographic results. Bage and Hodgeman looked after the transport of stores from the Hut, and Gillies, Bickerton and Madigan ran the motor-launch. McLean, who was now in possession of an incubator and culture tubes, grew bacteria from various sources--seals and birds, soils, ice and snow.
Ainsworth, Blake and Sandell, making their first acquaintance with Adelie Land, were most often to be seen quarrying ice on the glacier or pulling loaded sledges down to the harbour.
[TEXT ILl.u.s.tRATION]
Mackellar Islets
On the 18th a party of us went off to the Mackellar Islets in the motor-launch, taking a tent and provisions, intending to spend two days there surveying and making scientific observations.
These islets, over thirty in number, are cl.u.s.tered mainly in a group about two miles off sh.o.r.e. The group is encircled by rocky ”outposts,”
and there are several ”links” to the southern mainland. Under a brilliant sun, across the pale blue water, heaving in a slow northerly swell, the motor-launch threaded her way between the granite k.n.o.bs, capped with solid spray. The waves had undermined the white canopies so that they stood immobile, perched on the dark, kelp-fringed rocks, casting their pallid reflections in the turquoise sea. Steaming into a natural harbour, bordered by a low ice-foot on which scores of Weddell seals lay in listless slumber, we landed on the largest islet--a succession of salt-encrusted ridges covered by straggling penguin rookeries. The place just teemed with the sporadic life of an Antarctic summer.
It was calculated that the Adelie penguins exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand in number over an area of approximately one hundred acres. Near the landing-place there were at least sixty seals and snow petrels; skua gulls and Wilson petrels soon betrayed their nests to the biologists.
The islets are flat, and afford evidence that at one time the continental ice-cap has ridden over them. The rock is a hard grey gneiss. A rough plane-table map of the group was made by Hodgeman and myself.
Our scheme of local exploration was now continued to the west. For two years we had looked curiously at a patch of rocks protruding beneath the ice-cap eight miles away, within Commonwealth Bay. It had been inaccessible to sledging parties, and so we reserved Cape Hunter, as it was ultimately called, for the coming of the s.h.i.+p.
The anchor was raised on the forenoon of the 22nd, and by midday the 'Aurora' steamed at half-speed along the ramparts of the glacier, stopping about four miles from the Cape, after sounding in four hundred and twenty-four fathoms. Through field-gla.s.ses much had already been seen; enough to arouse an intense interest.
One could not but respond to the idea that here was a new world, flawless and unblemished, into which no human being had ever pried. Here were open secrets to be read for the first time. It was not with the cold eye of science alone that we gazed at these rocks--a tiny spur of the great unseen continent; but it was with an indefinable wonder.
In perfect weather a small party set off in the launch towards a large grounded berg which appeared to lie under the ice-cliffs. Approaching it closely, after covering two miles, we could see that it was still more than a mile to the rocks.