2l8 AMONGST THE SOUTHERN ICE. 



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 loo yards 

 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 

 noon. It came on to snow thickly at about 4 p.m., and another 

 gale came on. The plan adopted by Captain Sir G. S. Nares, 

 was to lay down the bearings of the adjacent bergs before the 

 weather became too thick for them to be seen, and then steam- 

 ing with all the power of the ship against the gale, to hang on 

 as long as possible under the lee of a large iceberg, and when 

 driven away from that, to steam rapidly across to the lee of 

 another, the position of which was known by the bearings 

 taken. So we went on steaming backwards and forwards 

 through the whole of a thick dark night. 



When it was at all foggy in calm weather, we hove to 

 amongst the bergs during the night. 



One evening, when there was a very slight fall of snow at 

 the time that there was a brilliant sunset, a snow-bow was seen 

 arching high up in the sky. It did not show regularly arranged 

 prismatic colours, but only a uniform bright pinkish yellow 

 hazy light. It was brighter at its lower extremities, like a 

 rainbow. 



With regard to animals, we saw not a single seal, on the ice 

 or in the water, during our Southern trip. No doubt we did 

 not go far enough south, or sufficiently amongst the pack ice 

 to meet with them. When we were off the pack ice, and 

 especially when we neared the Antarctic Circle, whales were 

 extremely abundant, apparently all of one species, a " Finback," 

 probably the southern " Finner " {Fhysa/i/s ausit-a/is). I saw 

 no Right Whale amongst them at all. 



As these whales moved under water close to the ship, the 

 light reflected from their bodies lighted up the water around, 

 and enabled one to follow their movements. I several times 

 went away in a small boat from the ship, to shoot birds for our 

 collection. 



On these occasions the whales sometimes blew quite close 

 to the boat. The appearance of a whale's spout as seen from 

 the level of the sea, is very different from that which it has 

 when seen from the deck of a ship ; it appears so much higher 

 and shoots up into the air like a fountain discharged from a 

 very fine rose. The whale of course, in reality, does not dis- 



