Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

the ice faces of the peaks and the whole range looked Himalayan; one forgot that
most of the peaks were less than 3,000 ft high. But climbs started from sea level
and at once met with difficult rock and ice so that, discounting the weather, they
corresponded to peaks of perhaps 12,000 ft in the Alps. Add to this the rigorous
weather conditions and the difficulty of effecting a landing at any but a few
widely separated points and you have a challenging mountaineering problem. I
hoped that my zoological work next summer would give me time to do some
surveying and climbing across the strait.
A large concentration of bergs, driven by the ocean currents had now piled
up in the shallow water of Paal Harbour and along the coast of Coronation.
Their architecture went in for Norman rather than Gothic arches! To the south
the sea was for the most part ice-free. In the next few days more large bergs
moved up from the south overnight but strong north winds would blew most of
them out again. The brash ice was spreading into the bay again and the
temperature was about 4°C that day.
Another night, before turning in I went over to the cairn on Berntsen Point.
The eastern part of Coronation was a grey silhouette with long fleecy stratus
banks above, but to the west the mountains were bathed in silver moonlight
painting a track across the bay. A large and very bright lunar halo with two
mock moons seemed to indicate dirty weather in the offing. Sure enough it was
raining heavily next morning and continued wet all day; that night a 50 mph
gale was shaking the hut, but inside all was snug.
On 1 March Ralph came up with me when I went to make the ice
observation. The water in Paal Harbour below us was a brilliant clear blue
through which it was possible to see the underwater parts of the numerous
‘growlers’ – large chunks of ice. There were several red and green snow patches
too high for them to be due to contamination by penguins. On the land north of
Gourlay Point were numerous patches of smoothed rocky ground - evidently
indicating the areas covered in season by penguin rookeries. In one or two places
were groups of the residual breeding population numbering, all told, about
10,000 on that stretch of coast.
Later that day we crossed by boat to the northern part of Borge Bay and I
found a score or so of elephant seals ranged along the beach in Stygian Cove in
lifeless postures. Near one of them a snow petrel was amongst the brash ice,
unable to fly although it flapped its wings and, when caught and examined, it
seemed quite sound. Amongst the brash it could be seen only with difficulty: in
the hand it was without doubt one of the most beautiful birds I had seen. The
black beak and greyish-mauve legs afforded a marked contrast with the pure
white fluffy plumage. The interior of its mouth was mauve-pink. There were
eleven skuas on that stretch of the beach and I hoped the snowy would not fall
foul of them. Derek collected some rock specimens but none of great interest.
Large bright green areas we saw on this flat ground, were due to an alga Prasiola
which forms extensive mats on 'manured' areas around penguin colonies and
seal wallows. The temperature in the shade rose to over 5°C and there were over
8.9 hours of sunshine that day! As we rowed back for the Met Ob and W/T
(wireless-telegraphy, ie radio) schedule, pink fine-weather cirrus shone against a
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