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

It proved impossible to travel along the coast owing to the crevasses near the ice
cliffs and to the steep ice slope to the east of Confusion Island. Instead I climbed up
the snow-covered slopes to a col between two humps and removing the snowshoes I
climbed the ridge to a higher summit. Derek came along much later and I saw Ralph
going back towards Gourlay Peninsula. On inspecting the nearby coast through
binoculars it looked impassable, but starting near Confusion Island I worked round
to Cummings Cove, covering as much of the shore as possible. It was deeply
indented with narrow coves, and the headlands between were high and very steep
so any detailed survey of it would necessarily be very laborious. In any case I saw
very few suitable elephant seal beaches (indeed during the day I observed only 12
elephants). Now that I knew the position of the possible beaches, ensuing surveys
would be that much less laborious since it would be appropriate to miss out
unsuitable stretches of the coast. The north side of Fyr Channel was dotted with
large rookeries of chinstrap penguins - still occupied, though with much diminished
populations. I followed the coast all the way except for one place where steep ice
slopes made a detour inland and uphill necessary. On many of the floes in Fyr
Channel Weddells were basking, some of the bays were frequented by leopards, and
I noted one crabeater.
All the bird species were abundant except for giant petrels, but I saw only one or
two adults and certainly there were no nesting colonies on that stretch of coast.
Snowies and Cape pigeons were particularly abundant. In one cove there was a
gathering of 30 or so snowies. They were squabbling, hopping from one piece of ice
to another. As they were all congregated near the centre of a shapely berg they were
seen against a background of turquoise blue (which should make a good subject for a
painting). Their black feet appeared strangely prominent against the ice.
I made my way around Porteous Point and into Cummings Cove. Some very
large and thick ice floes floated in the bay and on many of the smaller floes lay
solitary Weddells; one supported a leopard and crabeaters within 12 ft of each other
(the leopard is a predator on young crabeaters). Then I noticed a leopard seal in the
water tearing to pieces the hindquarters of a small elephant. Gripping the meat
between its vicious jaws, submerging until only its back was showing, and then by
arching back and flexing its tail, it flung its head backwards with a jerk, tearing off
chunks of the prey. Raising its head vertically it then swallowed once, twice. A
crowd of Cape pigeons, a few snowies and two Dominicans gathered round for the
pickings. I climbed back to the col and made my way in the gathering dusk over the
ice sheet and so to base over the top, my beard a tangle of icicles. Snow goggles were
most irritating as condensation freezes in such conditions and they had to be cleaned
very frequently, because travel is awkward when seeing everything through a mist.
A few days later came another glorious morning and the air temperature had
fallen to -10°C. The sunshine recorder was to record a remarkable 6.2 hrs of sun that
day! As it looked so promising I went with Derek over to Port Jebsen on the West
coast to continue the seal census. The pack was blocking all the bays on the east coast
and almost filled Normanna Strait - about 8 10ths cover; to the south it was about
7 10ths with many small and some large bergs moving up. So this explained the
temperature drop. Elephant Flats was quite frozen over and in Factory Cove the new
ice was forming pancakes.
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