Monday, December 21, was beautifully fine, with a gentle west-north-
westerly breeze. We made a start at 3 a.m. and proceeded through the
pack in a south-westerly direction. At noon we had gained seven miles
almost due east, the northerly drift of the pack having continued while
the ship was apparently moving to the south. Petrels of several
species, penguins, and seals were plentiful, and we saw four small blue
whales. At noon we entered a long lead to the southward and passed
around and between nine splendid bergs. One mighty specimen was shaped
like the Rock of Gibraltar but with steeper cliffs, and another had a
natural dock that would have contained the 'Aquitania'. A spur of ice
closed the entrance to the huge blue pool. Hurley brought out his
kinematograph-camera, in order to make a record of these bergs. Fine
long leads running east and south-east among bergs were found during
the afternoon, but at midnight the ship was stopped by small, heavy ice-
floes, tightly packed against an unbroken plain of ice. The outlook
from the mast-head was not encouraging. The big floe was at least 15
miles long and 10 miles wide. The edge could not be seen at the widest
part, and the area of the floe must have been not less than 150 square
miles. It appeared to be formed of year-old ice, not very thick and
with very few hummocks or ridges in it. We thought it must have been
formed at sea in very calm weather and drifted up from the south-east.
I had never seen such a large area of unbroken ice in the Ross Sea.

We waited with banked fires for the strong easterly breeze to moderate
or the pack to open. At 6.30 p.m. on December 22 some lanes opened and
we were able to move towards the south again. The following morning
found us working slowly through the pack, and the noon observation gave
us a gain of 19 miles S. 41° W. for the seventeen and a half hours
under steam. Many year-old adelies, three crab-eaters, six sea-
leopards, one Weddell and two blue whales were seen. The air