Nov.'io, 1876] 



NATURE 



105 



band of white reflection rising some 12° above the horizon, 

 and frequently bounded above by a dark- rolled cloud. 



The 15th was clear and calm, with a light wind from 

 the south-east. There were innumerable icebergs in all 

 directions, some with their blue cliffs entirely visible from 

 the bridge, and the blue waves lapping about their- base, 

 and springing up into fissures and recesses in jets of 

 dazzling foam ; some only rising above the horizon and 

 slowly developing their varied outlines, and for a time 

 deluding us into the idea that they were low— sloping 

 gently from the water, and that it might be possible to 

 land upon them. All the very large bergs, and some of 

 them were one or two miles in length, were table-topped, 

 evidently retaining their original position. 



About 10 o'clock in the evening our attention was called 

 by the officer of the watch to a very beautiful effect of 

 lig^t. There had been a fine crimson sunset, and now a 

 dark curtain of cloud had sunk almost to the water's edge, 

 leaving between it and the sea a long open line of the most 

 vivid flame-colour, broken here and there by an iceberg, 

 which, according to its position, took a rosy glow from 

 the sky, or merely interrupted it with its cold grey 

 outline. 



During the forenoon of February 16 we passed on 

 under sail through a splendid double chain of icebergs, 

 most of them table-topped, and showing little evidence of 

 change of form ; and all day, on the southern horizon, 

 berg after berg rose solemnly out of the water, at first a 

 white line only, the blue bounding-cliff growing in height 

 as we ran southwards. Shortly after noon we crossed the 

 Antarctic circle, and a little later we reached our most 

 southern point, lat. 66° 40' S. ; long. 78° 22' E. exactly 

 fourteen hundred miles from the South Pole. 



As the season was advancing, and as there was no 

 special object in our going further south — a proceeding 

 ^ which would have been attended with great risk to an un- 

 protected ship, since, while the temperature of the 

 surface-water ranged between — \°-6j and — 2°o C. (29" 

 and 28°'4 F.), very close to the freezing-point of sea-water, 

 . the temperature of the air fell to — 4" 44 C. (24 F.), and 

 once or twice the water began to show that sludgy ap- 

 pearance which we know sets so rapidly, converting in a 

 few hours an open pack into a doubtfully penetrable 

 barrier — Capt. Nares decided upon following the edge of 

 the pack to the north-eastward, towards the position of 

 Wilkes' " Termination Land." 



From our most southern point the sea was tolerably 

 clear of ice for at least twenty miles in a south-westerly 

 direction. The whole of the horizon to the south-east was 

 closed by a chain of very uniform and symmetrical flat- 

 topped bergs, all about 200 feet high above the water, one 

 upwfirds of three miles in length, and several between one 

 and two miles. 



During the next week we were making our way slowly 

 to the north-east, along the edge of the pack, sometimes 

 • lipping into it a little way, or crossing outlying loose 

 patches. 



The pieces of ice on which we were bumping every 

 now and then were 10 to 20 feet in length, rising from 

 I to 2 feet out of the water. Most of them were covered 

 with a smooth layer of lately fallen snow, which had 

 apparently not even got splashed with the water which 

 was lapping round the blocks, it was so pure and white. 



When the ship struck a block, the ice was usually 

 driven aside unbroken ; but the crust of snow was 

 shattered and fell into the water. At the line where the 

 water broke against the ice-blocks, they were all more or 

 less honeycombed and worn-looking, and along this line 

 many of thtm were of a dirty-yellow colour, probably 

 from the washing of diatoms and crustaceans into the 

 spongy ice. The temperature of the air averaged about 

 - 4°7 C. (23°-5 F.) in the shade ; and that of the surface 

 of the sea - 2°78 (27° F.) ; every overhanging ledge of 

 an iceberg was fring'^d with delicate new icicles, and the 



"gummy" look of the surface, threatening the formation 

 of young ice, was very evident. The sea was usually a 

 splendid deep blue.^ 



The weather changed during the night of the 23rd, and 

 at daylight on the morning of the 24th the wind was rising 

 fast with a cloudy sky and frequent snow-showers. We 

 were very anxious to get a haul of the dredge in this posi- 

 tion, and Capt. Nares had it put over in the hope of 

 getting it up before the weather became too boisterous. 

 The wind and sea rose so fast, however, that it was found 

 necessary to shorten the operation. The dredge was got 

 in safely, but, as we' anticipated, it was empty, and had 

 probably never reached the bottom. During the forenoon 

 the weather got rapidly worse. The snow became con- 

 tinuous, and was so thick — blinding clouds of singularly 

 beautiful wheel-hke crystals, which stung the face as if 

 they were red hot — that we could scarcely see the length 

 of the ship. We tried to get under the lee of an iceberg ; 

 but while reefing an eddy caught the ship and dragged 

 her towards the berg, which she fouled, carrying away her 

 jibboom. At three P.M. things were nearly as bad as 

 they could be. The wind was blowing from the south- 

 east by east, with a hurricane force, in the squalls ; the 

 sea was running very high ; the temperature had fallen 

 to — 6°'ii C. (21° F.) ; we were surrounded with icebergs, 

 which we could not see for the sheets of blinding snow, 

 but we could hear the dull boom of the surf dashing upon 

 them. When the gale was at its height we £aw the loom of 

 an iceberg on the lee-bow, and we were drifting directlyupon 

 it. As there was no time to steam ahead, Capt. Nares went 

 full-speed astern with the four boilers, and set the reefed 

 main topsail aback, and under this sail the ship fortu- 

 nately gathered stern-way, keeping broadside to the wind, 

 and we drifted past the berg. Towards evening the wind 

 fell a little, and we moved about all night between two 

 btrgs, whose position we knew, keeping as much as 

 pos::-ible under their lee till daylight. 



On the morning of the 25th this storm, which was one 

 of the most trying and critical episodes in the whole 

 voyage, was entirely over, and the air was calm and clear. 

 We pushed a couple of miles into the pack to the north- 

 east. We were now about fifteen miles from the position 

 of Termination Land on the chart sent by Lieut. Wilkes 

 to Capt. Ross. The sky was clear to the southward and 

 eastward, the direction of the supposed land, but there 

 was nothing which could be taken even for an "appear- 

 ance of land." A sounding taken close to the edge of 

 the pack had given a depth of 1,300 fithoms, and there 

 was no trace of land debris on any of the icebergs. We 

 were forced to conclude that Lieut VViikes had been in 

 error, and that there was no lin J n this position. We 

 now ran on steadily in a north-easterly direction towards 

 Cape Otway, and on March 4 we passed a low irregular 

 iceberg, the last we saw during our southern cruise of 

 1874. We sighted Cape Otway on March 16, and on the 

 17th we anchored off Sandridgc Pier, in Hobson's Bay. 



In these high southern latitudes, at all events at the 

 point where we crossed the Antarctic circle, it seems that 

 originally all the icebergs are tabular, the surface perfectly 

 level and parallel with the surface of the sea, a cliff on 

 an average 200 feet high bounding the berg. The top is 

 covered with a layer of the whitest snow ; now and then 

 a small flock of petrels take up their quarters upon it, 

 and trample and soil some few square yards, but after 

 their departure one of the frequent snow showers restores 

 it in a few minutes to its virgin whiteness. The upper 

 part of the cliff is of a pale blue, which gradually 

 deepens towards the base. When looked at closely, the 

 face of the cliff is seen to be traversed by a delicate 

 ruling of faint blue lines, the lines more distant above, 

 and becoming gradually closer. The distance between 

 the well-marked lines near the top of the berg may be a 

 foot, or even more ; while near the surface of the water it 

 is not more than 2 or 3 inches, and the spaces betweer 



