AMONGST THE SOUTHERN ICE. 251 



but the ship drifted so fast before the wind, that the dredge did 

 not reach the bottom. The wind became fresher and fresher, 

 and the barometer sunk to 28°'50. The atmospheric pressure is 

 however, for some reason, normally low in the Antarctic regions, 

 and Eoss once observed it as low as 28°*35. 



Before long it blew a gale, with dry powdery drifting snow, 

 obscuring the view and rendering it impossible to see for a 

 greater distance than 200 or 300 yards. The thermometer sank 

 to 21° F., the lowest reading which occurred during the cruize. 

 Before the weather became very bad we steamed up under the 

 lee of a small sloping berg, with the intention of making fast to 

 it if possible by means of ice anchors. 



This was found impracticable, the slope of the berg being too 

 steep to allow of men dropping on to it from the end of the 

 jibboom, as had been intended. The ship was then placed under 

 the lee of the berg, with the view of facilitating the reefino- of 

 top sails, as a preparation for the coming gale. Either a back 

 current set the ship on to the berg, or the berg itself was drifting 

 towards us with the wind more rapidlv than was expected. A 

 collision ensued, and the jibboom was forced against the side of 

 the berg and broken, together with some parts of the rigging in 

 connection with it. 



The end of the jibboom left a star-like mark on the sloping 

 wall of the berg, but had no other effect on the mass. The men 

 who were aloft reefing the topsails, came down the back stays 

 helter-skelter, expecting the top-gallant masts to fall, but no 

 further damage ensued. 



As the weather became worse we were in rather a critical 

 position. We were surrounded by bergs, with the weather so 

 thick with snow that we could not see much more than a ship's 

 length, and a heavy gale was blowing. The full power of steam 

 available was employed. Once we had a narrow escape of 

 running into a large berg, passing only just about 100 }^ards to 

 leeward of it by making a stern board, with all the sails aback, 

 and screwing full speed astern at the same time. The deck was 

 covered with frozen powdery snow, and forward was coated with 

 ice from the shipping of seas. 



On February 28th again there were 40 icebergs in sight at 



