istmas, with
a smile at the irony of it, the ward-room was swaying about in a most
bewildering fashion."

Towards evening, after the 'Aurora' had battled for hours slowly to the
east, the sea went down somewhat and some drifting ice was sighted. We
continued under full steam, pushing forward to gain the shelter of the
Mertz glacier-tongue. It was now discovered that the fluke of the anchor
had broken off short, so great had been the strain imposed upon it
during the height of the hurricane.

On Boxing Day the ship was in calmer water heading in a more southerly
direction so as to come up with the land. Fog, fine snow and an
overcast sky made a gloomy combination, but during the afternoon the fog
lightened sufficiently for us to perceive the mainland--a ghostly cliff
shrouded in diaphanous blink. By 10 P.M. the Mertz glacier was visible
on the port bow, and to starboard there was an enormous tilted berg
which appeared to be magnified in the dim light.

Allowing a day for the weather to become clearer and more settled,
we got out the trawl on the 28th and did a dredging in three hundred
fathoms close to the glacier-tongue. Besides rocks and mud there were
abundant crinoids, holothurians, corals, crustaceans and "shells."
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 ship 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 emerge