286 Notice vélative to the Observations and Discoveries 
made the Pack Edge, and entered the Antarctic Circle on the 
ist day of January 1841. 
This pack presented none of those formidable characters 
which I had been led to expect from the accounts of the Ameri- 
cans and French; but the circumstances were sufficiently un- 
favourable to deter me from entering it at this time, anda 
gale from the northward interrupted our operations for three 
or four days. On the 5th January we again made the pack 
about 100 miles to the eastward, in latitude 66° 45’ south, 
and longitude 174° 16’ E.; and although the wind was blowing 
directly on it, with a high sea running, we succeeded in enter- 
ing it without either of the ships sustaining any injury, and, 
after penetrating a few miles, we were enabled to make our 
way to the southward with comparative ease and safety. 
On the following three or four days our progress was ren- 
dered more difficult and tedious by thick fogs, light winds, a 
heavy swell, and almost constant snow showers ; but a strong 
water-sky to the S.E. which was seen at every interval of 
clear weather, encouraged us to persevere in that direction ; 
and on the morning of the 9th, after sailing more than 200 
miles through this pack, we gained a perfectly clear sea, and 
bore away S.W. towards the Magnetic Pole. 
On the morning of the 11th January, when in latitude 70° 
41’ South, and longitude 172° 36’, land was discovered at the 
distance, as it afterwards proved, of nearly 100 miles, directly 
in the course we were steering, and therefore directly between 
us and the Pole. 
Although this circumstance was viewed at the time with 
considerable regret, as being likely to defeat one of the more 
important objects of the expedition, yet it restored to England 
the honour of the discovery of the southernmost known land 
which had been nobly won, and for more than twenty years 
possessed, by Russia. 
Continuing our course towards this land for many hours, we 
seemed scarcely to approach it. It rose in lofty mountain 
peaks of from 9000 to 12,000 feet in height, perfectly covered 
with eternal snow; the glaciers that descended from near the 
mountain summits, projected many miles into the ocean, and 
presented a perpendicular face of lofty cliffs. As we neared 
