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

and the light administrative duties of a Base Leader. The others on the point were
variously occupied. Ken and Henry might go up to Leith Harbour by boat, on
Magistrate's business; Charlie and Jack would be servicing equipment, doing met
obs and meeting radio schedules; Ian occupied himself doing various odd jobs; the
cook Andy was in his kitchen; and the others all on meteorological duties. It was
very different from the other bases to the south, because at King Edward point
work places and duties were dispersed and one often saw little of people except at
mealtimes.
We still had to explore the surrounding country and next day Arthur and I
packed rucksacks and set off for Maiviken, a small bay opening into West
Cumberland Bay to our north. The path took us up the Bore Valley to a dam, built
to provide fresh water for the whaling station. Beyond it there was no path, but
the whalers had erected cairns to mark the route over the pass. It was very green
lower down, the slopes covered with a dense carpet of burnett, but above 600 ft
the vegetation was much more sparse and opened into a rock wilderness – a thin
layer of scree lying over mud, moraines and rock slabs. The crags on either side
were very impressive. At the top of the pass we came upon a superb view across
West Cumberland Bay to Larsen Point, blue in the morning haze. Shortly after
leaving the top of the pass we found ourselves in a boggy patch, covered with a
deceptive blanket of bright green mosses. But we sank no further in than our
ankles, except where there were miniature potholes, masked by the luxuriant
vegetation. Descending, we passed several waterfalls and lakes hidden in hollows
of the hillside, each a vivid turquoise-blue in colour and so clear that if there were
no ripples on the surface: one could almost think there was no water there.
Then we came down to the coastal tussac and evidences of occupation by
elephant seals in the form of wallows and flattened tussock plants. Climbing up
again we found ourselves above a little rocky beach, with ridges of rock running
out to sea – crusted with bright orange, yellow and black lichens. There were
banks of dead tussock grass, presumably brought down by recent floods, along
the high water mark and elephant seals were lying on this. It was a day in a
hundred, calm with the sun sparkling on the sea and no sound but the surge of the
swell and the muffled breathing of an occasional seal.
We went over the headland to the West Cumberland Bay and found a number
of seals there. I shot several of them and we occupied ourselves collecting the
needed specimens. Then we climbed up to see the light-mantled sooty albatross
nests on the cliffs. Their young are very like the young mollymauks of the
Falklands, but darker. Several of the adults glided along the cliff face but did not
land; they fly in pairs a graceful, acrobatic nuptial flight, hanging on the air
currents just below the cliff edges, and are very beautiful birds, various shades of
grey-brown and light chocolate. I could quite understand how Arthur had
already lost his heart to them. A sealing vessel – the Albatros was working one of
the beaches across the bay; we watched with interest but they didn’t take many
seal and soon left. That evening I went to dinner with Ken Pierce-Butler and the
Karlsens. It was an interesting evening, for Karlsen (the Manager of Pesca) talked
good English and told us a lot about the present whaling activities and history.
Mrs Karlsen was rather left out of it, making an occasional remark in Norwegian
that her husband translated for us.
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