![]() ![]() They attack without provocation, looking on man as a penguin or seal. In his diary that night, Worsley observed: “A man on foot in soft, deep snow and unarmed would not have a chance against such an animal as they almost bound along with a rearing, undulating motion at least five miles an hour. The sea leopard’s jawbone, which measured nearly 9 inches across, was given to Orde-Lees as a souvenir of his encounter. When it was butchered, balls of hair 2 and 3 inches in diameter were found in its stomach-the remains of crabeater seals it had eaten. It was a dramatic gesture, but that was the way Shackleton wanted it. Then he laid the Bible in the snow and walked away. It was a predatory species of seal, and resembled a leopard only in its spotted coat-and its disposition. page from the Book of Job with this verse on it: Out of whose womb came the ice And the hoary frost of Heaven, who hath gendered it The waters are hid as with a stone. It measured 12 feet long, and they estimated its weight at about 1,100 pounds. ![]() ![]() Two dog teams were required to bring the carcass into camp. It was less than 30 feet away when it finally dropped. Wild dropped to one knee and fired again and again at the onrushing beast. The sea leopard spotted Wild, and turned to attack him. The animal leaped out of the water again in pursuit just as Wild arrived with his rifle. Orde-Lees’ shouts for help rose to screams and he turned and raced away from his attacker. It made a savage lunge for Orde-Lees with its mouth open, revealing an enormous array of sawlike teeth. The animal had tracked his shadow across the ice. By then, Orde-Lees had nearly reached the opposite side of the floe he was about to cross to safe ice when the sea leopard’s head exploded out of the water directly ahead of him. In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackletons fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has. After a half-dozen leaps, the sea leopard had almost caught up with Orde-Lees when it unaccountably wheeled and plunged again into the water. The beast looked like a small dinosaur, with a long, serpentine neck. The animal-a sea leopard-sprang out of the water and came after him, bounding across the ice with the peculiar rocking-horse gait of a seal on land. He turned and fled, pushing as hard as he could with his ski poles and shouting for Wild to bring his rifle. “Returning from a hunting trip, Orde-Lees, traveling on skis across the rotting surface of the ice, had just about reached camp when an evil, knoblike head burst out of the water just in front of him. ![]()
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