OF THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE. 319 
rendered voluntary progress impossible, and the tide drifted 
the * Erebus" towards a large stranded berg, the boats were 
lowered and she was towed off, and after running between 
two icebergs, she was made fast to a large floe, her position 
having, even then, to be constantly shifted as the ice. turned 
round. "This state of things continued till the 11th, when 
they cast off from the floe and made for a space of clear water 
between the Pack and the land, which they reached and then 
observed a barrier of ice or glacier, presenting a wall which 
much resembled, though it was on a smaller scale, the barrier 
twice encountered by the Antarctic expedition in lat. 78°. It 
is described as meeting the steep shore quite abruptly and 
running back in a slanting line to the loftier land and moun- 
tains, forming a sloping wall, perhaps 70 feet high. The bergs 
which are seen in its vicinity, cannot have formed a portion 
of it and been broken off, as they are considerably loftier 
than itself and aground much further from the shores. Far 
as the eye could reach, this glacier skirted the coast to the 
south east, the tide running very strong at its base and coloured 
of a burnt sienna hue by the infusorial and confervoid subs- 
tance. On the 13th, at 2 p.m., the tide hurried both ships 
among the lee-ice, (or ice lying to leeward), a most troublesome 
and unfortunate circumstance, for the ice is, of course, much 
heaviest and most closely packed to leeward, and when once a 
ship gets entangled with it, she cannot sail out. The only 
mode of extrication by which a vessel can regain the open water - 
to windward, whence she came, is to warp out, by fastening 
lines to the hammocks on the ice, and bringing them to the 
capstan, gradually, against both wind and ice, heaving her 
ahead between the pieces. Several warps require to be out, 
from different parts at a time, and are hauled on, or brought 
to the windlass, capstan or winch, according to circumstances: 
All hands, on board must strain at this work, which cannot be 
pursued if there is much wind. As it was, five minutes suf- 
ficed to carry the “ Erebus” into the lee ice on the 13th of 
February, and three hours were required to get her out again. 
The “ Terror,” being a quarter of a mile farther in, was not 
z 2 
