The main objections offered to our voluntary stay in the pack are the ignorance of the home authorities of our whereabouts, and the certain death which would follow the loss of the _Belgica_ by pressure, or by other accidents. If an expedition has planned to winter in the unknown antarctic pack she should have two vessels, so that if one is crushed another might remain to bring home her precious cargo of human life, and the records of the equally precious work. If this is not the fortune of an expedition, there should, at least, be left at home a clear outline of the prospective route. It is unnecessarily hazardous to trust to the pitfalls and certain misfortunes of polar work without such safeguards. In our case no one knows of our whereabouts. If our vessel should be lost, no relief could possibly reach us, because it is not definitely known where we may be found. Death by freezing and starvation would be our lot if our trusty ship were disabled, and such a possibility must always remain in view, in a battle against the ponderous polar-ice. With this prospect before us we do not take kindly to a voluntary berth among the ever restless floes during the many weeks of sure darkness and unknowable cold. February 24.--A sharp southerly wind has been blowing all night. The sky is again gray and cheerless and full of promise for an early tempest. Sailors at sea rarely pray for a tempest, but this is the only hope we now have of securing freedom from the ice. We are longing for a gale of wind. We are not particular from what direction, anything will do so long as it breaks the ice and gives us a little room. With this promise before us, and while still beset, the Commandant comes forward with the first of a long series of new programmes. We are to gain the open sea northward, as quickly as possible, from here make a line of soundings from the edge of the pack northward, and another line parallel to the western shores of Grahamland, then go to Yankee Harbour, Deception Island, and return to Belgica Strait for a short period. As the season for ice exploration ceases we are to go to Ushuaia, where Racovitza and I are to be left for the winter to make zoölogical and anthropological studies of the Fuegian life, while the _Belgica_ returns to Buenos Aires to winter. Next season we are to go south of Australia to Victorialand. [Illustration: The Hummocks of a Pressure-Angle.] [Illustration: Cestrugi.] CHAPTER XIV OVER UNKNOWN WATERS INTO THE FROZEN SEA