162 FROM MADEIRA TO THE BARRIER 



sailor. Not that we had a moment's fear for the ship; 

 we knew her well enough to be sure that it would take 

 some very extraordinary weather to do her any harm. 

 If we were afraid of anything, it was of delay. 



But we were spared either delay or any other trouble ; 

 by noon on Christmas Day we had just what was wanted 

 to keep our spirits at festival pitch; a fresh north- 

 westerly wind, just strong enough to push us along 

 handsomely toward our destination. It afterwards 

 hauled a little more to the west, and lasted the greater 

 part of Christmas week, until on December 30 we were 

 in long. 170 E. and lat. 60 S. With that we had at 

 last come far enough to the east, and could now begin 

 to steer a southerly course ; hardly had we put the helm 

 over before the wind changed to a stiff northerly breeze. 

 Nothing could possibly be better; in this way it would 

 not take us long to dispose of the remaining degrees of 

 latitude. Our faithful companions of the westerly belt 

 -the albatrosses had now disappeared, and we could 

 soon begin to look out for the first representatives of 

 the winged inhabitants of Antarctica. 



After a careful consideration of the experiences of our 

 predecessors, it was decided to lay our course so that we 

 should cross the 65th parallel in long. 175 E. What 

 we had to do was to get as quickly as possible through 

 the belt of pack-ice that blocked the way to Ross Sea 

 to the south of it, which is always open in summer. 

 Some ships had been detained as much as six weeks in 



