Scott's Last Expedition Volume I — Part 51

These are not pleasant figures to contemplate, but considering the exceptional conditions experienced I suppose one must conclude that things might have been worse.

9th. Loose streams, steaming. 10th. Close pack. 11th. 6 A.M. close pack, stopped. 12th. 11.30 A.M. started. 13th. 8 A.M. heavy pack, stopped; 8 P.M. out fires. 14th. Fires out. 15th. ... 16th. ... 17th. ... 18th. Noon, heavy pack and leads, steaming 19th. Noon, heavy pack and leads, steaming. 20th. Forenoon, banked fires. 21st. 9 A.M. started. 11 A.M. banked. 22nd. ,, ,, 23rd. Midnight, started. 24th. 7 A.M. stopped 25th. Fires out. 26th. ,, ,, 27th. ,, ,, 28th. 7.30 P.M. steaming. 29th. Steaming. 30th. Steaming.

These columns show that we were steaming for nine out of twenty days. We had two long stops, one of _five_ days and one of _four and a half_ days. On three other occasions we stopped for short intervals without drawing fires.

I have asked Wright to plot the pack with certain symbols on the chart made by Pennell. It promises to give a very graphic representation of our experiences.

'We hold the record for reaching the northern edge of the pack, whereas three or four times the open Ross Sea has been gained at an earlier date.

'I can imagine few things more trying to the patience than the long wasted days of waiting. Exasperating as it is to see the tons of coal melting away with the smallest mileage to our credit, one has at least the satisfaction of active fighting and the hope of better fortune. To wait idly is the worst of conditions. You can imagine how often and how restlessly we climbed to the crow's nest and studied the outlook. And strangely enough there was generally some change to note. A water lead would mysteriously open up a few miles away or the place where it had been would as mysteriously close. Huge icebergs crept silently towards or past us, and continually we were observing these formidable objects with range finder and compass to determine the relative movement, sometimes with misgiving as to our ability to clear them. Under steam the change of conditions was even more marked. Sometimes we would enter a lead of open water and proceed for a mile or two without hindrance; sometimes we would come to big sheets of thin ice which broke easily as our iron-shod prow struck them, and sometimes even a thin sheet would resist all our attempts to break it; sometimes we would push big floes with comparative ease and sometimes a small floe would bar our passage with such obstinacy that one would almost believe it possessed of an evil spirit; sometimes we passed through acres of sludgy sodden ice which hissed as it swept along the side, and sometimes the hissing ceased seemingly without rhyme or reason, and we found our screw churning the sea without any effect.