It seemed to point to very distant open water.
But an observation which gave greater satisfaction was a steady reduction in the thickness of the floes.

At first they were still much pressed up and screwed.

One saw lines and heaps of pressure dotted over the surface of the larger floes, but it was evident from the upturned slopes that the floes had been thin when these disturbances took place.
At about 4.30 we came to a group of six or seven low tabular bergs some 15 or 20 feet in height.

It was such as these that we saw in King Edward's Land, and they might very well come from that region.

Three of these were beautifully uniform, with flat tops and straight perpendicular sides, and others had overhanging cornices, and some sloped towards the edges.
No more open water was reported on the other side of the bergs, and one wondered what would come next.