Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/254

It was warm work pulling through the soft snow and we were glad to stop for lunch. We could make out the edge of the piedmont quite plainly, but could see nothing of the inlet until about 2 p.m., when we saw the mouth of it. A broad open-water lead several miles wide seemed to extend right along the barrier edge, but in the inlet itself the sea was frozen over. The snow was soft and the pulling very heavy, so it was 6 o'clock before we reached camp, on the north side of the inlet, about fifty yards from the cliff. Several seals and penguins were up on the sea ice, while snowdrifts gave us an easy road down from the barrier. The surface of the piedmont was broken by small crevasses here, one running right under the tent. We all enjoyed our salt-water hoosh and turned in very tired. Browning rather better, Dickason quite recovered. A lovely evening. Distance 8·5 miles.

October 7.—A beautiful morning after a comparatively warm night. We were away soon after 8, down the snowdrift slope and over a tide crack 4 ft. wide. The sea ice proved very heavy going, as it was covered with deep crusted snow through which we had a job to move the sledges. We saw rather an amusing incident here. A number of seals were lying along the tide crack, and just after we had crossed we saw one more struggle up on the ice and go to sleep with her tail within a few inches of the tide crack. She had hardly gone to sleep when a head came cautiously up, saw her, dipped down again, then coming cautiously up again, bit her hard. The poor beast squealed, hit at her assailant several times