BACK IN THE BAY OF WHALES 345 



and southerly winds had held for a few days, with fair 

 weather; but that night there was thick snow, and the 

 wind gradually fell calm, after which a fresh breeze 

 sprang up from the south-east, with biting snow, and 

 at the same time a lot of drift-ice. The engine went 

 very slowly, and the ship kept head to wind. About 

 midnight the weather cleared a little, and a dark line, 

 which proved to be the Barrier, came in sight. The 

 engine went ahead at full speed, and the sails were set, 

 so that we might get under the lee of the perpendicular 

 wall. By degrees the ice-blink above the Barrier be- 

 came lighter and lighter, and before very long we were 

 so close under it that we only just had room to go 

 about. The Barrier here runs east and west, and with 

 a south-easterly wind we went along it to the east. 

 The watch that had gone below at eight o'clock, when 

 we were still in open sea, came up again at two to find 

 us close to the long-desired wall of ice. 



Some hours passed in the same way, but then, of 

 course, the wind became easterly — dead ahead — so that 

 we had tack after tack till 6 p.m. the same day, when 

 we were at the western point of the Bay of Whales. 



The ice lay right out to West Cape, and we sailed 

 across the mouth of the bay and up under the lee of the 

 eastern Barrier, in order, if possible, to find slack ice 

 or open water; but no, the fast ice came just as far 

 on that side. It turned out that we could not get 

 farther south than 78° 30' — that is, eleven nautical miles 



VOL, II. 48 



