March 29.--A light northerly wind has lowered, and darkened the heavens, and brought over us a wet, warm, uncomfortable atmosphere, with an occasional fall of snow. The snow on the pack is made adhesive by the water-charged air which is being blown over the ice from the open sea now, perhaps, one hundred miles northward. The _ski_ will not slide and sledges can be drawn only with great difficulty. The ice is still spreading out, increasing the width of the leads, while the temperature, which is close to zero, is not low enough to make new ice. Life has again returned in abundance. We saw four finback whales spouting, blowing, and sporting, and moving leisurely southward in the leads. We saw also many white and giant petrels, and great numbers of royal and small pack penguins. On a floe about three miles from the ship we encountered six crab-eating seals. We killed all of these and found their stomachs distended by a fresh meal of shrimp. Two were pregnant, and from these the naturalist secured embryos which were, indeed, rare and beautiful. These were placed in a jar and marked for future study. As the sun settled under the horizon westward, a lemon colour spread along the sky in that direction and early in the night the sky cleared somewhat. There was a small feeble fragment of an arc aurora hanging in the south-west with a steady glow during most of the night. March 30.--The morning opened bright and cloudless with a temperature -20° C., and a gentle southerly air which has brushed away the heavy humid air of yesterday. Racovitza and I went to a lead which Koren, the cabin-boy, visited yesterday, and who reported thousands of penguins and hundreds of seals. The distance was about two miles and the travelling on the floes was good, but when it was necessary to cross old breaks over the hummocks, and crushed ice, it became a task of considerable difficulty. When we reached the lead we found that what Koren had said was to some extent true. Upon a large hummocky floe in the lead there was much life. We counted twenty crab-eating seals and seventeen king penguins. This was certainly the largest assemblage of the great penguins and seals which we had seen on the pack. With a rifle Racovitza shot six seals and with my _ski_ stick I killed all the penguins. We realised the fact that it was cruel to do this, but the calls of science and the dire needs of our stomachs made the deed absolutely necessary. The seals were all females and from them we obtained four embryos. The penguins were bagged for food. Later in the day a westerly wind raised the temperature and brought great quantities of drift-snow. During the night the wind increased to a half-gale.