Meanwhile we sounded, and found a volcanic muddy bottom at 2035 fathoms.
The last sounding showed 1400 fathoms; we had passed over a bank.

Steam came at 8 P.M. and we began to push forward. At first it was hard
going, but slowly we elbowed our way until the spaces of open water
became more frequent. Soon we found one or two large pools, several miles
in extent; then the floes became smaller. Later we could see no really
big floes at all; "the sheets of thin ice are broken into comparatively
regular figures, none more than thirty yards across," and "we are
steaming amongst floes of small area evidently broken by swell, and with
edges abraded by contact."[83]

We could not be far from the southern edge of the pack. Twenty-four hours
after raising steam we were still making good progress, checking
sometimes to carve our way through some obstacle. At last we were getting
a return for the precious coal expended. The sky was overcast, the
outlook from the masthead flat and dreary, but hour by hour it became
more obvious that we neared the threshold of the open sea. At 1 A.M. on
Friday, December 30 (lat. about 71½° S., noon observation 72° 17´ S.,
177° 9´ E.) Bowers steered through the last ice stream. Behind was some
400 miles of ice. Cape Crozier was 334 miles (geog.) ahead.

FOOTNOTES:

[40] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 6.

[41] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 7.

[42] Ibid. p. 9.