In honour of our two Irishmen, Jeffrey and McIlroy, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a specially good dinner, for which Green had produced some shamrock-shaped scones tied up with green ribbon. I was also able to produce some cigars and a bottle which we cracked for the occasion. On the 18th Worsley and Wilkins put down a dredge with reversing thermometer attached. At first steam was used for heaving up, but this proving very slow we fell back on man power. It was hard work, but the men, as they always do on these occasions, threw themselves into it with a will, and we soon brought it to the surface. We obtained fifty-seven specimens of quartzite, tuffs, etc. There was no living matter, but the rocks were filled with worm cells. The next day we were closely invested by dense pack, composed of heavy old pressure floes. On one was a huge sea-leopard which I shot with my heavy rifle. With the assistance of Worsley, Douglas and Watts I brought it in to the ship, where Wilkins claimed head and skin as specimens. Later in the day I went with a party composed of Worsley, McIlroy, Kerr, Carr and Macklin to look at a berg, distant four or five miles from the ship. It was a bright morning and we much enjoyed the walk. The ice was very treacherous, and we had to proceed carefully from floe to floe, making many wide detours. On the morning of the 20th the outlook was bad, for we were closely beset on all sides, and the clouds to the north showed no signs of “water sky.” The temperature was 10° Fahr., and the new ice was freezing more thickly than ever. Macklin, Carr and Marr set off to visit a large berg which appeared on the horizon. They thought they were making wonderfully good progress till it became evident that the berg was moving rapidly towards them, charging heavily through the floe, throwing aside fragments which lay in its path and leaving a wide lane of open water behind it. I watched it anxiously as, travelling at from two to three miles an hour, it approached the ship, and I feared that we might be involved in pressure as a result of the displacement of floes about it. To my relief, however, it passed about three-quarters of a mile astern of us and finally disappeared over the horizon to the northward. There was something awe-inspiring about this huge structure as it moved inexorable and undeviating on its path, relentlessly crushing and pushing aside the smaller structures which sought to impede its progress. In the evening there was a marked change in the weather. The temperature rose to 14.5° Fahr., and the day became more dull and grey. From the crow’s nest I could see a distinct water sky to the northward. [Illustration: ROWETT ISLAND, OFF CAPE LOOKOUT, ELEPHANT ISLAND _Photo: Wilkins_] [Illustration: THE KENT “CLEAR-VIEW” SCREEN _Photo: Sport & General_] [Illustration: APPROACHING CAPE LOOKOUT _Photo: Wilkins_]