Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/181

a lead of smooth ice about half a mile to the northward. Getting on to this we made good progress, arriving back at the hut at 5 p.m. A good many seals were up, and about two miles from home we came on the first party of penguins.

After our return from this second coast trip the sea ice became too rotten to be trustworthy, even in Robertson Bay, while to the north of the beach, where the sweep of the current was exceptionally strong, the various open water patches which had been present since August rapidly widened and coalesced, and in December the ice both east and west of the cape broke out with great rapidity.

Our work, therefore, was now restricted to the immediate confines of the beach and the peninsula of Cape Adare, and this time was principally occupied in taking routine observations and adding to our biological collections.

Amongst the specimens collected at this time were several fine sea leopards, which I was fortunate enough to shoot near the rookery. As most of them were shot in the water, we had some difficulty in securing the bodies, and it was here that our kayaks were very useful.

We could carry these light and yet seaworthy craft down to the ice foot and launch them, and from them slip a noose round the body as it lay on the bottom in two or three fathoms of water. The line was then passed ashore and the united strength of the party just sufficed to land the quarry.