169ｰ 58ｴ E.The next day, in lat.

64ｰ 27ｴ 38ｴｴ S., the 'Aurora' passed through the first belt of pack-ice.

At 9 a.m.on January 7, Mount Sabine, a mighty peak of the Admiralty Range, South Victoria Land, was sighted seventy-five miles distant.
It had been proposed that a party of three men should travel to Cape Crozier from winter quarters during the winter months in order to secure emperor penguins' eggs.

The ship was to call at Cape Crozier, land provisions, and erect a small hut of fibro-concrete sheets for the use of this party.

The ship was off the Cape on the afternoon of January 9, and a boat put off with Stenhouse, Cope, Joyce, Ninnis, Mauger, and Aitken to search for a landing-place.