Monday 12th December 1910, Life In The Pack

Position 67.5°S., 178°22′W. Made good 15 miles to S. 48 E. Air temperature 28.5° to 35°. Sea temperature 29° to 30°. Winds N.W. 4 to 3 to W. 2 to 4. Pack unchanged but floes in motion.

Much rotten snowfall ice in between, very thin and wet. Floes today have been getting smaller, but much thicker and heavier in character. Was out at 5 a.m. to read and write and cocoa. We have made very little way today.

The birds are the same as yesterday, and nearly all the Adélie and Emperor Penguins to be seen in the pack are in one year old plumage. They live here on euphausia, reddish orange little shrimplike schizopods, and small fish. We see these little creatures thrown up on to the ice floes to freeze, by the wash of the water, in thousands. The petrels live by picking them off the ice. The penguins and the seals catch them in the sea itself.

The amount of life in the pack is its most astonishing feature—and the diatoms which support it all simply colour the ice red orange and yellow everywhere underneath. It is white above, of course—but the white of the snow is relieved everywhere with fissures and hollows of a wonderful cobalt and Prussian Blue light, and along the edge washed by sea water the colour is peacock green.

The diatoms feed the euphausia, the euphausia and such like, all living on lower life depending on the diatoms, feed not only the penguins and the Crabeaters and the other seals and fish, but also many of the biggest whales, while there are other whales such as the ‘Killers’ and other seals, such as the Sea Leopards, which feed on the seals and fish and penguins that have been living on the euphausia.

It is difficult to say how the days go in the pack—one has so many odd things to do, such as examining distant seals, penguins, and birds with the glasses to say what they are, drawing icebergs at critical moments and various distances, putting in an hour now and then below to make a water colour sketch; then turning to the skinning of penguins because the bodies are wanted for dinner; then flensing seal-skins and cleaning the meat off skulls and skeletons, and a dozen other things.

Everyone was at work—in fact all the scientific staff take hours on watch and are on the bridge with the officer of the watch in the crow’s nest where all the ice navigation is done. These midshipmen of the watch manage the engine-room telegraph according to orders from the crow’s nest. Wright is responsible for all the expedition ice notes and is helped by Priestley and Debenham.

Rennick does the soundings. Nelson and Lillie manage the townets and water bottles and deep sea temperatures. Pennell, of course, does all the navigation and sleeps still on the bridge always in a sleeping bag whether it blows or snows or freezes. Bowers has his hands full of stores work, and preparations go on with the landing party stores for east and west. Titus Oates and Atkinson look after the horses, poor things, which are very tired and badly chafed and very swollen about the legs in some cases from long standing.

Meares and his Russian boys manage the dogs, and we all pump out the ship when the ship is under sail. The ship is a busy centre and work is not lacking, though now we no longer trim coal or work in the stoke-hold. There is no illness on board.