Part 68 (1/2)

In addition, several pieces of fossilized wood and coaly matter were discovered scattered through the ”catch.”

Bage, under Davis's direction, took temperatures and collected water samples at fifty, seventy-five, one hundred, two hundred and three hundred fathoms, using the Lucas sounding-machine on the fo'c'sle. The temperature gradient from the surface downwards appeared to give some indication of the depth of ice submerged in the glacier-tongue alongside which we were lying.

On the 29th a cold south-easter blew off the ice-cliffs and the sun was trying to pierce a gauzy alto-stratus. The 'Aurora' steamed north-east, it being our intention to round the northern limit of the Mertz Glacier.

Gradually a distant line of pack, which had been visible for some time, closed in and the s.h.i.+p ran into a cul-de-sac. Gray, who was up in the crow's-nest, reported that the ice was very heavy, so we put about.

Proceeding southward once more, we glided along within a stone's throw of the great wall of ice whose chiselled headlands stood in profile for miles. There was leisure to observe various features of this great formation, and to make some valuable photographic records when the low south-western sun emerged into a wide rift. Hunter trailed the tow-net for surface plankton while the s.h.i.+p was going at half-speed.

At ten o'clock the s.h.i.+p had come up with the land, and her course was turned sharply to the north-west towards a flotilla of bergs lying to the east of the Way Archipelago, which we intended to visit.

On December 30, 1913, the 'Aurora' lay within a cordon of floating ice about one mile distant from the nearest islet of a group scattered along the coast off Cape Gray.

Immediately after breakfast a party of eight men set off in the launch to investigate Stillwell Island. The weather was gloriously sunny and every one was eager at the prospect of fresh discoveries. Cape Hunter had been the home of the Antarctic petrels, and on this occasion we were singularly fortunate in finding a resort of the Southern Fulmar or silver-grey petrels. During the previous summer, two of the eastern sledging parties had for the first time observed the breeding habits of these birds among isolated rocks outcropping on the edge of the coast.

But here there was a stronghold of hundreds of petrels, sitting with their eggs in niches among the boulders or ensconced in bowers excavated beneath the snow which lay deep over some parts of the island.

The rock was a gneiss which varied in character from that which had been examined at Cape Denison and in other localities. All the scientific treasures were exhausted by midday, and the whale-boat was well laden when we rowed back to the s.h.i.+p.

Throughout a warm summer afternoon the 'Aurora' threaded her way between majestic bergs and steamed west across the wide span of Commonwealth Bay, some fifteen miles off the land. At eleven o'clock the sky was perfectly clear and the sun hung like a luminous ball over the southern plateau. The rocks near the Hut were just visible. Close to the ”Pianoforte Berg” and the Mackellar Islets tall jets of fine spray were seen to shoot upward from schools of finner whales. All around us and for miles sh.o.r.eward, the ocean was calm and blue; but close to the mainland there was a dark curving line of ruffled water, while through gla.s.ses one could see trails of serpentine drift flowing down the slopes of the glacier. Doubtless, it was blowing at the Hut; and the thought was enough to make us thankful that we were on our good s.h.i.+p leaving Adelie Land for ever.

On the morning of December 31, 1913, Cape Alden was abeam, and a strong wind swept down from the highlands. Bordering the coast there was a linear group of islets and outcropping rocks at which we had hoped to touch. The wind continued to blow so hard that the idea was abandoned and our course was directed towards the north-west to clear a submerged reef which had been discovered in January 1912.

The wind and sea arose during the night, causing the s.h.i.+p to roll in a reckless fas.h.i.+on. Yet the celebration of New Year's Eve was not marred, and l.u.s.ty choruses came up from the ward-room till long after midnight.

Next morning at breakfast our ranks had noticeably thinned through the liveliness of the s.h.i.+p, but it is wonderful how large an a.s.sembly we mustered for the New Year's dinner, and how cheerfully the toast was drunk to ”The best year we have ever had!”

On January 2, 1914, fast ice and the mainland were sighted. The course was changed to the south-west so as to bring the s.h.i.+p within a girdle of loose ice disposed in big solid chunks and small pinnacled floes.

A sounding realized two hundred fathoms some ten miles off the coast, which stretched like a lofty bank of yellow sand along the southern horizon. On previous occasions we had not been able to see so much of the coastline in this longitude owing to the compactness of the ice, and so we were able to definitely chart a longer tract at the western limit of Adelie Land.

The ice became so thick and heavy as the 'Aurora' pressed southward that she was forced at last to put about and steer for more open water. On the way, a sounding was made in two hundred and fifty fathoms, but a dredging was unsuccessful owing to the fact that insufficient cable was paid out in going from two hundred and fifty fathoms to deeper water.

Our north-westerly course ran among a great number of very long tabular bergs, which suggested the possibility of a neighbouring glacier-tongue as their origin.

At ten o'clock on the evening of the 2nd, a mountain of ice with a high encircling bastion pa.s.sed to starboard. It rose to a peak, flanked by fragments toppling in snowy ruin. The pyramidal summit was tinged the palest lilac in the waning light; the mighty pallid walls were streaked and blotched with deep azure; the green swell sucked and thundered in the wave-worn caverns. Chaste snow-birds swam through the pure air, and the whole scene was sacred.

A tropical day in the pack-ice! Sunday January 4 was clear and perfectly still, and the sun shone powerfully. On the previous day we had entered a wide field of ice which had become so close and heavy that the s.h.i.+p 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, pus.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+p seemed more active than usual.

Many soundings were taken, and their value lay in broadly [...] Of course, too, we were supplementing the s.h.i.+p's previous work in these lat.i.tudes.

[TEXT ILl.u.s.tRATION]

Section Ill.u.s.trating 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 phosph.o.r.escent 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.