The stain may have been volcanic dust.

Many of the bergs had quaint shapes.
There was one that exactly resembled a large two-funnel liner, complete in silhouette except for smoke.

Later in the day we found an opening in the pack and made 9 miles to the south-west, but at 2 a.m.

on January 3 the lead ended in hummocky ice, impossible to penetrate.

A moderate easterly gale had come up with snow-squalls, and we could not get a clear view in any direction.