The Home Of The Blizzard Part 69

On January 29 the s.h.i.+p, after a preliminary trawling had been done in three hundred and twenty fathoms, pushed into the floe and was made fast with an ice-anchor. Emperor penguins were so plentiful in the neighbourhood that many specimens were secured for skins.

A sea-leopard was seen chasing a crab-eater seal quite close to the bow of the s.h.i.+p. The latter, after several narrow escapes, took refuge on an ice-foot projecting from the edge of the floe.

Advantage was taken of a clearing in the weather to walk over the sea-ice to a berg two and a half miles away, from the summit of which it was hoped that some sign of land might be apparent. Away in the distance, perhaps five miles further on, could be seen an immense congregation of Emperor Penguins--evidently another rookery. No certain land was visible.

The cruise was now continued to the north-west in order to skirt a collection of bergs and floe, with the ultimate object of proceeding in an easterly direction towards Termination Ice-Tongue at the northern limit of the Shackleton Shelf-Ice.

A glance at the map which ill.u.s.trates the work done by the Western Party affords the best idea of the great ice-formation which stretches away to the north of Queen Mary Land. It is very similar in character to the well-known Ross Barrier over which lay part of Scott's and Amundsen's journeys to the South Pole. Its height is remarkably uniform, ranging from sixty to one hundred feet above the water-level. When allowance has been made for average specific gravity, its average total thickness should approximate to six hundred feet. From east to west the formation was proved to be as much as two hundred miles, with one hundred and eighty miles between its northern and southern limits.

This vast block of ice originates fundamentally from the glacial flow over the southern hinterland. Every year an additional layer of consolidated snow is added to its surface by the frequent blizzards.

These annual additions are clearly marked in the section exposed on the dazzling white face near the brink of the ice-cliff. There is a limit, however, to the increase in thickness, for the whole ma.s.s is ever moving slowly to the north, driven by the irresistible pressure of the land-ice behind it. Thus the northern face crumbles down into brash or floats away as part of a berg severed from the main body of the shelf-ice.

On the morning of January 30 we had the unique experience of witnessing this crumbling action at work--a cataclysm of snow, ice and water! The s.h.i.+p was steaming along within three hundred yards of a cliff, when some loose drifts slid off from its edge, followed by a slice of the face extending for many hundreds of feet and weighing perhaps one million tons. It plunged into the sea with a deep booming roar and then rose majestically, shedding great ma.s.ses of snow, to roll onwards exposing its blue, swaying bulk s.h.i.+vering into lumpy ma.s.ses which pushed towards the s.h.i.+p in an ever-widening field of ice. It was a grand scene enacted in the subdued limelight of an overcast day.

During the afternoon the 'Aurora' changed her north-westerly course round to north-east, winding through a wonderful sea of bergs grounded in about one hundred and twenty fathoms of water. At times we would pa.s.s through narrow lanes between towering walls and emerge into a straight wide avenue along which these mountains of ice were ranged. Several were rather remarkable; one for its exquisite series of stratification lines, another for its facade in stucco, and a third for its overhanging cornice fringed with slender icicles.

On January 31 a trawling was made in one hundred and twelve fathoms.

Half a ton of life emptied on the deck gave the biologists occupation for several days. Included in the catch were a large number of monstrous gelatinous ascidians or "sea-squirts." Fragments of coal were once more found; an indication that coaly strata must be very widely distributed in the Antarctic.

The pack was dense and in ma.s.sive array at the extremity of Termination Ice-Tongue. Davis drove the s.h.i.+p through some of it and entered an open lead which ran like a dark streak away to the east amid ice which grew heavier and more marked by the stress of pressure.

Our time was now limited and it seemed to me that there was little chance of reaching open water by forcing a pa.s.sage either to the east or north. We therefore turned on our tracks and broke south-west back into the Davis Sea, intending to steam westward to the spot where we had so easily entered two weeks previously.

On February 4 the pack to the north was beginning to thin out and to look navigable. Several short-cuts were taken across projecting "capes,"

and then on February 5 the 'Aurora' entered a zone of bergs and broken floe. No one slept well during that night as the s.h.i.+p b.u.mped and ground into the ice which crashed and grated along her stout sides. Davis was on watch for long hours, directing in the crow's nest or down on the bridge, and throughout the next day we pushed on northwards towards the goal which now meant so much to us--Australia--Home!

At four o'clock the sun was glittering on the great ocean outside the pack-ice. Many of us climbed up in the rigging to see the fair sight--a prevision of blue skies and the calm delights of a land of eternal summer. Our work was finished, and the good s.h.i.+p was rising at last to the long swell of the southern seas.

On February 12, in lat.i.tude 55 degrees S, a strong south-wester drove behind, and, with all sails set, the 'Aurora' made eight knots an hour.

The last iceberg was seen far away on the eastern horizon. Albatrosses followed in our wake, accompanied by their smaller satellites--Cape hens, priors, Lesson's and Wilson petrels.

Before leaving the ice, Sandell and Bickerton had fixed an aerial between the fore and mizen masts, while the former installed a wireless receiving-apparatus within the narrow limits of his cabin. There was no s.p.a.ce on the s.h.i.+p to set up the motor-engine, dynamos and other instruments necessary for transmitting messages over a long distance.

As the nights began to darken, Sandell listened eagerly for distant signals, until on February 16, in lat.i.tude 47 degrees S, the "calls"

of three s.h.i.+ps in the vicinity of the Great Australian Bight were recognized. After this date news was picked up every night, and all the items were posted on a morning bulletin pinned up in the ward-room.

The first real touch of civilization came unexpectedly early on the morning of February 21. A full-rigged s.h.i.+p on the southern horizon! It might have been an iceberg, the sails flashed so white in the morning sun. But onward it came with a strong south-wester, overhauled and pa.s.sed us, signalling "'Archibald Russell', fifty-four days out from Buenos Ayres, bound for Cape Borda." It was too magical to believe.

On February 26 we gazed on distant cliffs of rock and earth--Kangaroo Island--and the tiny cl.u.s.ter of dwellings round the lighthouse at Cape Borda. Then we entered St. Vincent's Gulf on a clear, hot day, marvelling at the sandy-blue water, the long, flat mainland with its clumps of trees and the smoke of many steamers.

The welcome home--the voices of innumerable strangers--the hand-grips of many friend--it chokes one--it cannot be uttered!

APPENDIX I

THE STAFF

The s.h.i.+p's Officers

J. K. Davis Master of S. Y. 'Aurora' and Second-in Command of the Expedition.

J. H. Blair First Officer during the later stages of the Expedition.

P. Gray Second Officer.

C. P. de la Motte Third Officer.

F. J. Gillies Chief Engineer.

Macquarie Island Party

G. F. Ainsworth Leader: Meteorologist.

L. R. Blake Geologist and Cartographer.

H. Hamilton Biologist.

C. A. Sandell Wireless Operator and Mechanic.

A. J. Sawyer Wireless Operator.

Main Base Party

Dr. D. Mawson Commander of the Expedition.

Lieut. R. Bage Astronomer, a.s.sistant Magnetician and Recorder of Tides.

C. T. Madigan Meteorologist.

Lieut. B. E. S. Ninnis In charge of Greenland dogs.

Dr. X. Mertz In charge of Greenland dogs.

Dr. A. L. McLean Chief Medical Officer, Bacteriologist.

F. H. Bickerton In charge of air-tractor sledge.

A. J. Hodgeman Cartographer and Sketch Artist.

J. F. Hurley Official Photographer.

E. N. Webb Chief Magnetician.

P. E. Correll Mechanic and a.s.sistant Physicist.

J. G. Hunter Biologist.

C. F. Laseron Taxidermist and Biological Collector.

F. L. Stillwell Geologist.

H. D. Murphy In charge of Expedition stores.

W. H. Hannam Wireless Operator and Mechanic.

J. H. Close a.s.sistant Collector.

Dr. L. A. Whetter Surgeon.

Western Base Party

F. Wild Leader.

A. D. Watson Geologist.

Dr. S. E. Jones Medical Officer.

C. T. Harrisson Biologist.

M. H. Moyes Meteorologist.

A. L. Kennedy Magnetician.

C. A. Hoadley Geologist.