Some hours earlier we had watched a wonderful golden mist to the southward, where the rays of the declining sun shone through vapour rising from the ice.

All normal standards of perspective vanish under such conditions, and the low ridges of the pack, with mist lying between them, gave the illusion of a wilderness of mountain-peaks like the Bernese Oberland.

I could not doubt now that the 'Endurance' was confined for the winter.

Gentle breezes from the east, south, and south-west did not disturb the hardening floes.

The seals were disappearing and the birds were leaving us.