78 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



edges, and, finally, just at midnight we crossed several east-west 

 belts of " brash-ice," and at long length entered the open Ross 

 Sea. 



The Morning and the Discovery had each entered the pack 

 in latitude 66|°, and emerged in 69!°. Thus they crossed 

 three degrees of latitude, or a little over two hundred statute 

 miles. We entered it in 64^° and left it behind in 71 | c , which 

 is seven degrees or almost five hundred miles. Moreover, the 

 width of the pack has this in common with the height of a 

 range of mountains, that the difficulties increase in a much 

 greater degree than direct proportion as these factors grow 

 large. For a great width of pack implies older and thicker 

 floes in the centre ; with an absence of cracks, since the swell 

 cannot penetrate this region. Four miles of a narrow pack 

 may be traversed in an hour, but the same distance in the 

 middle of the belt often took us more than twentv-four 

 hours. 



