Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/138

Several seals, one of which looked like a sea leopard, and some Adélie and Emperor penguins were on the ice, while large flocks of Antarctic petrels were flying about everywhere.

The ice cliffs, stretching as far as we could see, gave us no hope of finding a landing-place.

There is evidence of a great deal of pressure here and the upper edge of the cliff near us, 100 feet high, showed a pressure ridge, where evidently a large berg had been forced against it.

At 5.0 p.m. we reluctantly turned and retraced our steps, the only chance of a landing-place being Balloon Bight or some inlet at the east end of the Barrier. Soundings off Cape Colbeck gave us 89 fathoms. During the night we sailed as close as possible to the ice face but passed nothing but high cliffs. About 3 o'clock on the morning of the 3rd a strong S.E. wind sprang up, bringing a low mist, but not thick enough to prevent us keeping close to the coast. Soon after the cliff dipped a little and appeared on both bows, showing we were running into a bay; this was the place where I had had great hopes of effecting a landing, but we were unable to do so.

It was interesting to note that while the eastern side of the bay was clean cut, the western side was much weather-worn and honeycombed with caves, evidently worn by the strong westerly current which sweeps along the Barrier. We saw two narrow inlets opening N.E. but not wide enough to trust the ship in; moreover, as they open in this direction they are more liable to be blocked by any loose ice drifting in.