Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/142

course for Cape Adare, which was now 110 miles to the S.W. It came on to blow hard again from the S.E. in the afternoon, but we were able nearly to lay our course under lower topsails; the snow squalls were very thick, but luckily not much ice was sighted. Late in the afternoon the weather cleared and we sighted the mountainous coast of Victoria Land. During the night we got among a lot of weathered bergs and loose pack, which had the effect of smoothing the sea.

At 4 a.m. on the 17th we were within about 2 miles of the coast just east of Smith's Inlet.

The land here was heavily glaciated, hardly a rock showing, except some high cliffs and the Lyall Islands to the westward.

Heavy pack lay to the west of us, so we had to work along to the eastward, where the sea was fairly clear of ice.

Some large floes lay close in under the cliffs, grinding up against them in the heavy swell that was running. I was very much disappointed at seeing no piedmont to work along on the western sledge journey. The cliffs were several hundred feet high except where the glaciers ran down, the front of these being from 50 to 180 feet high.

We worked along to the eastward, keeping as close as we could, and keeping a good lookout for a possible landing.

The scenery was magnificent. In the afternoon we entered Robertson Bay and found we had a strong tide with us, which was fortunate as the wind had freshened