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

journey of about the same duration so that we could get the western end of
Coronation surveyed. Three men are really the minimum number for man-hauling -
Derek and I were really played out the previous winter dragging our load. But a field
party of three would leave one man on his own which was by no means ideal. At 50
John was a good deal older than the rest of us and didn't seem to be very keen on
getting about the island. He wasn't happy on skis and we would have to take two
tents etc. I thought he would probably be quite happy on his own for a month, which
was as long as we expected to be away at one time. Before making any definite plans
I planned to talk it over with him.
Day trips. Meanwhile we resolved to get as much sledging experience as we could.
On 9 May Charlie and Derek spent the day preparing to go to the South west corner
of the island and next day packed the sledge. John and I accompanied them on the
first part of the haul, which was the worst, first across the sea ice, over Elephant Flats
to the corner by the moraine as this seemed the easiest route. It was a stiff pull up the
first section of the drifted-over stream, with two pushing and two pulling, and then
up gentle slopes to the foot of the ablation channel. Here the slope steepened but we
carried on to the top, using the block-and-tackle to get out of the channel.
At this point John and I returned in time for the Ob and at 6.45 pm we had a
radio schedule with the travellers, but could only hear Derek very faintly for a short
time. Still we knew that they had pitched camp. They were away for 3 days and on
12 May, after lunch we sighted 2 weary figures coming down the Stone Chute with
the sledge so I went across to give them a hand. The ice was still safe but very soggy.
They were wet through and tired and had been able to do very little on account of
atrocious weather. I gave them a large lunch after they had changed and we heard
their news. They had seen two elephant seals heading south-southwest from Moe
Island and there was a pod on the shore of Fyr Channel. As to geology, they had
covered the Tula Bay area but that was all. They had tales of a large, magnificent, ice
cave with beautiful frost ‘cups’.
On 2 June Derek, Charlie and I skied over to the Oliphant Islands. We had a good
run down from the top of the ablation channel and were able to get out over the sea
ice as far as the first island to the south of Dove Strait. This had a massive clean-cut
cliff with blocks standing out like ‘stacks’ and we had to try one or two routes before
we got to the top. Charlie and I built a cairn, while Derek set up the theodolite and
took a round of angles. Fortunately we could just see the summit of Cape Hansen
above Observation Bluff. I did one or two sketches of parts of Coronation Island,
which revealed detail not seen from elsewhere.
12 June promised to be a good day and I decided to go over to ‘Castle Cape’ on
Coronation with Charlie, to look for signs of seals and to see if there were any
suitable beaches. Temperatures were -8°C to -10ºC. The going was good, apart from
sticky ice in the most recently frozen area. The pack began about half way across but
was open and there were wide avenues between the floes. The sun was not very
bright, due to plenty of low cloud. Passing to the west of Reid Island we encountered
some large cracks running East-West. Then we split and Charlie went down the west
side of the peninsula while I examined the eastern shore. I came upon some peculiar
tracks and had just decided that they were drifted up penguin tracks when I saw a
gentoo scrabbling about near the tide-crack. They were evidently made by of several
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