132 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY [Jan. 



one of those strange optical illusions which are so common in 

 this region, and against which, now more than ever, we were 

 determined to guard ourselves. 



In spite of our disappointment at being unable to report 

 that Ross's ' appearance of land ' rested on a solid foundation, 

 as we steamed along this high ice-wall on the afternoon of the 

 29th we had an indescribable sense of impending change. 

 The constant differences which we had observed in the barrier 

 outline during the past twenty-four hours seemed to us to 

 indicate strongly the proximity of land, though probably none 

 of us could have produced a very tangible argument to sup- 

 port this view. We all felt that the plot was thickening, and 

 we could not fail to be inspirited by the facts that we had not 

 so far encountered the heavy pack-ice which Ross reported in 

 this region, and that consequently we were now sailing in an 

 open sea into an unknown world. 



Many an eager face peered over the side ; now and then a 

 more imaginative individual would find some grand discovery 

 in the cloud-forms that fringed the horizon, but even as he 

 reported it in excited tones his image would fade and he would 

 be forced to sink again into crestfallen silence. 



Meanwhile we were making comparatively rapid progress 

 along the uniform high wall on our right. Perhaps the engines, 

 as well as those in charge of them, were eager to find out what 

 lay beyond. Our course lay well to the northward of east, 

 and the change came at 8 p.m., when suddenly the ice-cliff 

 turned to the east, and, becoming more and more irregular, 

 continued in that direction for about five miles, when it again 

 turned sharply to the north. 



Into the deep bay thus formed we ran, and as we ap- 

 proached the ice which lay ahead and to the eastward of us 

 we saw that it differed in character from anything we had yet 

 seen. The ice-foot descended to varying heights of ten or 

 twenty feet above the water, and behind it the snow surface 

 rose in long undulating slopes to rounded ridges whose height 

 we could only estimate If any doubt remained in our minds 

 that this was snow-covered land, a sounding of 100 fathoms 



