that Wood Bay would be the most southerly spot where security was
likely to be found, but Scott had seen enough of the coast-line to
the south of that place to realize the impossibility of traveling
along it in sledges, and to convince him that if any advance to
the south was to be made, a harbor in some higher latitude must
be found.

This inlet was afterwards named Granite Harbor, and so snug and
secure a spot was it to winter in that Scott expressed his thankfulness
that he did not yield to its allurements. 'Surrounded as we should
have been by steep and lofty hills, we could have obtained only the
most local records of climatic conditions, and our meteorological
observations would have been comparatively valueless; but the greatest
drawback would have been that we should be completely cut off from
traveling over the sea-ice beyond the mouth of our harbor.... It
is when one remembers how naturally a decision to return to this
place might have been made, that one sees how easily the results
of the expedition might have been missed.'

[Page 51]
It was, however, consoling at the time to know that, in default
of a better place, a safe spot had been found for wintering, so
with Granite Harbor in reserve the ship again took up her battle
with the ice; and on the 21st she was in the middle of McMurdo
Sound, and creeping very slowly through the pack-ice, which appeared
from the crow's-nest to extend indefinitely ahead. They were now
within a few miles of the spot where they ultimately took up their
winter quarters, but nearly three weeks were to pass before they
returned there. 'At 8 P.M. on the 21st,' Scott says, 'we thought
we knew as much of this region as our heavy expenditure of coal