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

sketches (the Twins and the Cuillins), and feeling very cold (temperature about -
18°C) went on down to the coast in a series of swings; it was exhilarating running,
with only a few exposed rocks to worry about.
I skied northwards with frequent halts to take in the views, making sketches and
notes on colours and taking one or two photographs. I met Derek as he was coming
back from North Point. There were some seals ahead, that I wanted to see, so he
turned back with me. There were penguin tracks in the area but no penguins. Three
large bulls were in the cove south of the North Point cove and two on the slopes
above. We followed the tracks of one seal and found that it had been doing some
mountaineering! It had started from the cove east of North Point and climbed uphill
to a point about 150 ft above. There he had spent the night in a 'bivouac' and ‘skied’
or rather slid downhill from there that morning. I say ‘skied’ because according to
the tracks he had been stemming with his body and at one point had made a perfect
stem turn; the hind-flippers had served as a brake in places. Also this seal showed a
degree of directive intelligence; the tracks showed that he had taken several routes
towards the shore, turning back each time when he reached a steep slope. As we
watched he made yet another exploratory trip, humping downhill, stopping above a
considerable ice cliff, looking around and then turning back uphill.
Near at hand were many pools of open water in the sea ice and the pack
stretched to the horizon with many bergs embedded in it. We returned to base via
Robin Col, an enjoyable downhill run to the lake and across the bay to Bare Rock. An
appreciable tide crack had opened around the rock but the ice was not yet suitable
for our survey base-line measurement, being rather thin and rotten in places. That
evening I worked up both sketches in watercolour and was pleased with the results.
To bed early with a crescent moon outside and Beethoven sonatas on the
gramophone.
On 21 June, Midwinter Day, Derek and I again set off on skis across Elephant
Flats for a seal count. The surface was very sticky in parts, where the sea-water had
flooded out from the tide cracks. We headed straight for Stygian Cove through
Paternoster Valley, skiing over the lakes, which were frozen over. The wind was
quite strong and blew the dry snow in waves and flurries over the surface, like sand
on a beach. In Stygian Cove eddies of wind at the base of the cliffs produced fantastic
shapes of whirling snow, lit up by weak sunlight. From Stygian Cove we followed
the coast around to Elephant Flats again and thence back to base. There were no seal
on the north-facing beaches, possibly owing to the strong northerly wind, and I
counted only 20 in all.
At the beginning of August thin stratus cloud over Coronation Island cleared
one day after breakfast and we had a lovely day ahead. We skied across the sea ice,
with theodolite, tripod and plane-table, around Berntsen Point and across Paal
Harbour. Finding myself ahead of the others I stopped to make a sketch of Garnet
Hill, which was looking very fine, with clear-cut shadows. The others caught up, and
Ralph stayed behind with me, while Derek pushed on. I finished the sketch in about
ten minutes and we followed Derek’s tracks, but then lost them at the top of a steep
slope. There was still no sign of Derek, so we pushed on into the bay. He had turned
aside at the ice slope and come about 1 4 mile along the shore, to reach the sea ice and
eventually we realized that he was behind us.
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