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wish for, and we had plenty of time at our disposal to carry out our scientific programme. When our way was barred by temporary congestion of the pack Pennell, Rennick, and Lillie would all get ahead with magnetic, deep-sea sounding, and biological work, mostly under favourable conditions.

Occasionally the sea was so discoloured by diatoms that we might have been steaming in the Thames estuary, and then again the discoloured area would be succeeded by belts of beautiful blue water wherein one could see crab-eater seals diving under the ship.

Quite the most fascinating sight in the pack ice was the exhibition of swimming by two crab-eaters in the open water leads on New Year's Day. They followed the ship and disported themselves like dolphins; when we were forced to stop owing to the closeness of the pack the two seals rubbed themselves along the side of the ship.

We were disappointed at seeing no Ross seals this year, for we have secured no specimens of this animal at all.

Jan. 5, 1913, 71° 48′ S., 166° 48′ W. By January 5 we had worked through 168 miles of pack, averaging only 24 miles a day, and burning over seven tons of coal for each daily run.

Now we were confronted by small belts of ice composed of floes 15 to 20 feet thick and 100 feet in diameter. This ice was so hard that the ship could not break it. Whenever we collided with a floe the Terra Nova shook fore and aft, the officer in the crow's nest experiencing the most violent concussions.