Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/578

between Cape Bird and Beaufort Island she forced through with considerable difficulty. The condition off Terra Nova Bay had, if anything, grown worse, and this time the ship was held up when 20 miles E.N.E. of the Barrier.

Finally, on March 7, taking into consideration the March 7, 1912, 75° 5′ S., 168° 43′ E. nature and extent of the pack and the time of the year, the conclusion was reluctantly come to that the ship could not reach Arrival Bay that season, and so she turned north.

The next day a sooty albatross was around the ship—a March 8, 73° 32′ S., 174° 12′ E. most welcome sight, proving the absence of pack to north of her; and from now on large numbers of deep sea birds were always round the ship.

On the 15th and 16th the Terra Nova passed up the north-east side of the Balleny Islands, closer than any March 16, 1912, 66° 44′ S., 164° 48′ E. other ship had been able to get, except Balleny himself; but either it was foggy or else it snowed so persistently, that nothing was seen of them except on the 16th, when the fog suddenly rolled away for two hours and, through a rift in the clouds, a glimpse of Buckle Island was obtained—part of the side of a snow-capped mountain with the sun on it, a rarely beautiful sight, appearing to be quite detached from anything to do with the earth herself. Before this one of the beautiful little snowy petrels had appeared, telling of ice in the vicinity, so the course was altered more to the northward and, when the fog lifted, icebergs and smaller bits of ice were seen on the port hand. It