Allowing a day for the weather to become clearer and more settled, we got out the trawl on the 28th and did a dredging in three hundred fathoms close to the glacier-tongue. Besides rocks and mud there were abundant crinoids, holothurians, corals, crustaceans and "shells." In addition, several pieces of fossilized wood and coaly matter were discovered scattered through the "catch."
Bage, under Davis's direction, took temperatures and collected water samples at fifty, seventy-five, one hundred, two hundred and three hundred fathoms, using the Lucas sounding-machine on the fo'c'sle. The temperature gradient from the surface downwards appeared to give some indication of the depth of ice submerged in the glacier-tongue alongside which we were lying.
On the 29th a cold south-easter blew off the ice-cliffs and the sun was trying to pierce a gauzy alto-stratus. The 'Aurora' steamed north-east, it being our intention to round the northern limit of the Mertz Glacier. Gradually a distant line of pack, which had been visible for some time, closed in and the ship ran into a cul-de-sac. Gray, who was up in the crow's-nest, reported that the ice was very heavy, so we put about.
Proceeding southward once more, we glided along within a stone's throw of the great wall of ice whose chiselled headlands stood in profile for miles. There was leisure to observe various features of this great formation, and to make some valuable photographic records when the low south-western sun emerged into a wide rift. Hunter trailed the tow-net for surface plankton while the ship was going at half-speed.
At ten o'clock the ship had come up with the land, and her course was turned sharply to the north-west towards a flotilla of bergs lying to the east of the Way Archipelago, which we intended to visit.
On December 30, 1913, the 'Aurora' lay within a cordon of floating ice about one mile distant from the nearest islet of a group scattered along the coast off Cape Gray.
Immediately after breakfast a party of eight men set off in the launch to investigate Stillwell Island. The weather was gloriously sunny and every one was eager at the prospect of fresh discoveries. Cape Hunter had been the home of the Antarctic petrels, and on this occasion we were singularly fortunate in finding a resort of the Southern Fulmar or silver-grey petrels. During the previous summer, two of the eastern sledging parties had for the first time observed the breeding habits of these birds among isolated rocks outcropping on the edge of the coast. But here there was a stronghold of hundreds of petrels, sitting with their eggs in niches among the boulders or ensconced in bowers excavated beneath the snow which lay deep over some parts of the island.
The rock was a gneiss which varied in character from that which had been examined at Cape Denison and in other localities. All the scientific treasures were exhausted by midday, and the whale-boat was well laden when we rowed back to the ship.
Throughout a warm summer afternoon the 'Aurora' threaded her way between majestic bergs and steamed west across the wide span of Commonwealth Bay, some fifteen miles off the land. At eleven o'clock the sky was perfectly clear and the sun hung like a luminous ball over the southern plateau. The rocks near the Hut were just visible. Close to the "Pianoforte Berg" and the Mackellar Islets tall jets of fine spray were seen to shoot upward from schools of finner whales. All around us and for miles shoreward, the ocean was calm and blue; but close to the mainland there was a dark curving line of ruffled water, while through glasses one could see trails of serpentine drift flowing down the slopes of the glacier. Doubtless, it was blowing at the Hut; and the thought was enough to make us thankful that we were on our good ship leaving Adelie Land for ever.
On the morning of December 31, 1913, Cape Alden was abeam, and a strong wind swept down from the highlands. Bordering the coast there was a linear group of islets and outcropping rocks at which we had hoped to touch. The wind continued to blow so hard that the idea was abandoned and our course was directed towards the north-west to clear a submerged reef which had been discovered in January 1912.