The edge could not be seen at the widest part, and the area of the floe must have been not less than 150 square miles.

It appeared to be formed of year-old ice, not very thick and with very few hummocks or ridges in it.

We thought it must have been formed at sea in very calm weather and drifted up from the south-east.
I had never seen such a large area of unbroken ice in the Ross Sea.
We waited with banked fires for the strong easterly breeze to moderate or the pack to open.

At 6.30 p.m.on December 22 some lanes opened and we were able to move towards the south again.

The following morning found us working slowly through the pack, and the noon observation gave us a gain of 19 miles S.41ｰ W.for the seventeen and a half hours under steam.