I904J THE LAST ICEBERG 293 



Two days later we saw the last of the Antarctic ice under 

 conditions which made us exceeding grateful that it was the 

 last, as my diary shows : 



^ March 7. — . . . Since we shut off steam yesterday we 

 have been progressing to the north, but in a very curious 

 manner. In spite of all head sails being set, the ship has 

 such a tendency to come up in the wind that the helm has to 

 be kept hard up, and so we plunge along about five knots, with 

 no power of control over the ship except to stop her by throw- 

 ing the yards aback. This is not so bad as long as there are 

 no bergs in sight, and yesterday I thought we had seen the last 

 of these unwelcome neighbours ; but this morning, when it 

 was blowing great guns, the boatswain came down and reported 

 a berg on the lee bow, and I dashed on deck to see a huge 

 mass of ice showing under the foot of the foresail. We had 

 either to go on or to "heave-to," as I knew we could not alter 

 course to pass to leeward. I decided finally to go on, but the 

 ship was labouring so heavily that it was fully twenty minutes 

 before we could be certain that the bearing was changing in the 

 right direction, and that we stood a good prospect of weather- 

 ing it. In another ten minutes we passed close to windward of 

 it, and could see the mountainous waves dashing over its lofty 

 pinnacles and imagine the condition of the unfortunate vessel 

 that should run foul of it. It was an impressive farewell to the 

 Southern ice, for since that gaunt, wave-beaten mass has 

 dropped astern we have seen no more.' 



With our last view of these formidable Southern bergs 

 my tale draws to a close, for what remains is little more than 

 the story of ordinary life on the high seas, and may be told 

 briefly. 



The month of March is the most stormy season of the year 

 in the Southern Seas, and during the days which we spent in 

 travelling to the north the weather made no exception in our 

 favour. From the 6th to the 14th we had continuous gales 

 with conditions of greater physical discomfort than we had 

 ever experienced on board the ' Discovery.' The ship was in 

 very light trim and was tossed about on the mountainous seas 



