Huge icebergs crept silently towards or
past us, and continually we were observing these formidable objects with
range finder and compass to determine the relative movement, sometimes
with misgivings as to our ability to clear them. Under steam the change
of conditions was even more marked. Sometimes we would enter a lead of
open water and proceed for a mile or two without hindrance; sometimes we
would come to big sheets of thin ice which broke easily as our iron-shod
prow struck them, and sometimes even a thin sheet would resist all our
attempts to break it; sometimes we would push big floes with comparative
ease and sometimes a small floe would bar our passage with such obstinacy
that one would almost believe it possessed of an evil spirit; sometimes
we passed through acres of sludgy sodden ice which hissed as it swept
along the side, and sometimes the hissing ceased seemingly without rhyme
or reason, and we found our screw churning the sea without any effect.
"Thus the steaming days passed away in an ever-changing environment and
are remembered as an unceasing struggle.
"The ship behaved splendidly--no other ship, not even the Discovery,
would have come through so well. Certainly the Nimrod would never have
reached the south water had she been caught in such pack. As a result I
have grown strangely attached to the Terra Nova.
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