The stain
may have been volcanic dust. Many of the bergs had quaint shapes.
There was one that exactly resembled a large two-funnel liner, complete
in silhouette except for smoke. Later in the day we found an opening
in the pack and made 9 miles to the south-west, but at 2 a.m. on
January 3 the lead ended in hummocky ice, impossible to penetrate. A
moderate easterly gale had come up with snow-squalls, and we could not
get a clear view in any direction. The hummocky ice did not offer a
suitable anchorage for the ship, and we were compelled to dodge up and
down for ten hours before we were able to make fast to a small floe
under the lee of a berg 120 ft. high. The berg broke the wind and
saved us drifting fast to leeward. The position was lat. 69° 59? S.,
long. 17° 31? W. We made a move again at 7 p.m., when we took in the
ice-anchor and proceeded south, and at 10 p.m. we passed a small berg
that the ship had nearly touched twelve hours previously. Obviously we
were not making much headway. Several of the bergs passed during this
day were of solid blue ice, indicating true glacier origin.
By midnight of the 3rd we had made 11 miles to the south, and then
came to a full stop in weather so thick with snow that we could not
learn if the leads and lanes were worth entering. The ice was hummocky,
but, fortunately, the gale was decreasing, and after we had scanned all
the leads and pools within our reach we turned back to the north-east.
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