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

ace to catch up and we boarded her at 9.15 am. Then pressed on, around Cape
Constance and across Antarctic Bay, to the coast west of the Fortuna Glacier.
Landing on a beach just west of the Guides, where there was a small waterfall
spilling over from a lake behind, we examined three beaches, counting 136 small
and medium male elephant seals, but again none large enough to kill. On all these
beaches and in Blue Whale Harbour there were many empty wallows previously
occupied by seal.
Out to Albatros again and on past the Fortuna Glacier. The coast was rugged,
with precipitous cliffs rising behind a coastal strip varying in extent, and evidently
a raised beach. Various albatrosses, penguins, cape pigeons, prions, Wilson's
storm-petrels accompanied us and from the rocks ashore many sheathbills and
gulls watched us pass. A rainbow framed the bay as we left. Then we rounded
Cape Best and entered Fortuna Bay; steep rock cliffs on either side made it
forbidding, and occasional small glaciers perched high up in the corries. At the
head of this bay a large glacier sprawled along the beach; it was receding and had
none of the cerulean-blue cliffs, which are such a lovely feature of many of the
others. Instead it was a slagheap of moraine material, which discoloured and in
places completely hid the ice; the beach was continuously exposed along the
shore. Gone were the 120 ft cliffs of the former glacier snout – now it just faded
out indeterminately. There were no seals on several otherwise very suitable
beaches in this bay and so we turned and steamed out again at noon, passing
around Fortuna Rocks and on along a monotonous (relatively so!) coast to Cape
Saunders. The strata were particularly contorted along this piece of coast; folds
and overfolds abounded.
An hour and a half later we rounded Jason Island and saw that Cumberland Bay
had also had snowfalls during the past week. Busen 6 was fishing near the east
shore. We passed close inshore and, rounding Larsen Point, came to anchor in Allen
Bay. The beach was crowded with young seal – I counted 301 altogether – and
within a few minutes of landing the sealers had killed four medium-sized bulls.
While I was examining them the Gunner searched the tussac for more, but without
success. The motor-boat towed the blubber back to the ship and as we walked
westwards along the beach, one bull at the water's edge got away, and they killed
another on the point that marked the western extremity of Allen Bay. This (my
scientific station no. 59) was on rocks with a heavy swell drenching us with spray as
we worked. The pram was, with great difficulty, brought alongside the rocks and we
all jumped in and returned to the ship to warm up. Josef, one of the sealers, had
collected a reindeer antler, one of many scattered along the beach. The reindeer here,
around 300 in all, according to Bogen, belonged to the Husvik (Busen) herd and
weren’t hunted at all by Pesca people, who confined their activities to the East Fjord,
Barff Peninsula, reindeer. The motor-boat went on ahead to the next bay and the
pram was towed alongside Albatros as we followed, giving time for a cup of bitter
coffee before we anchored in Jason Harbour. There we landed on a shingle beach
strewn with the bones of generations of elephant seals of all ages. They shot one
medium-sized bull on the beach near a stream, which issued from the tussac, and
while I examined it the Gunner and some of the others went to look for more. We
followed them past a small hut that contained a table and bunks, through the tussock
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