he moist gravel. Down on the southern ridge we happened on a Wilson
petrel with feathered nestlings. At this point McLean came along from
the west with the news of silver-grey petrels and Cape pigeons nesting
in hundreds. He had secured two of each species and several eggs. This
was indeed a discovery, as the eggs of the former birds had never before
been found. Quite close to us were many snow petrels in all kinds of
unexpected crevices. The light was too dull for photographing, but,
while I took magnetic "dips" on the following morning, McLean visited
the silver-grey petrels and Cape pigeons and secured a few "snaps."

The last thing we did before leaving the mainland was to kill two
penguins and cut off their breasts and this meat was, later, to serve us
in good stead.

Crossing the Mertz Glacier at any time would have been an unpleasant
undertaking, but to go straight to Mount Murchison (the site of our
first depot on the outward journey) from Penguin Point meant spanning it
in a long oblique line. It was preferable to travel quickly and safely
over the sea-ice on a north-westerly course, which, plotted on the
chart, intersected our old one-hundred-mile camp on the eastern margin
of the glacier; then to cross by the route we already knew.

By January 2 we had thrown Penguin Point five miles behind, and a spell
of unsettled weather commenced; in front lay a stretch of fourteen miles
over a good surface. The wind was behind us, blowing between thirty and
forty miles per hour, and from an overcast sky light snow was falling.
Fortunately there were fleeting glimpses of the sun, by which the course
could be adjusted. Towards evening the snow had thickened, but thanks to
the splendid assistance afforded by a sail, the white jutting spurs of
the edge of Mertz Glacier were dimly visible.

A blizzard took possession of the next day till 7 P.M., when we
all sallied out and found the identical gully in which was the
one-hundred-mile camp of the outward journey. The light was still bad
and the sky overcast, so the start was postponed till next morning.

There was food for five days on a slightly reduced ration and the depot
on Mount Murchison was forty miles away.

Once we had left the sea-ice and stood on the glacier, Aurora Peak with
its black crest showed through the glasses. Once there, the crevasses we
most dreaded would be over and the depot easily found.

A good fourteen and a quarter miles slipped by on January 4-