, over thirty in number, are clustered mainly in a group
about two miles off shore. 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 knobs,
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 Ship.

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-glasses 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. Approac