128 SOUTH AGAIN : NEW ZEALAND AND THE CAPE 



or no is not to the purpose ; there is no doubt it existed. 

 My opinion is that the Packs shift slowly, and that a place 

 open for one season may be shut for many successive ones. 

 I have heard that an English Lieut, called Kea, or Wray, 

 went down in a sealer, and met the Pack in 60. Now, 

 though I sincerely hope to make the Pack and get through 

 it, rather even than meet no ice, still we twice have been 

 entirely successful, and it is humanly possible that ships 

 can always penetrate at whatever point they take the pack. 

 A little more ice last year would infallibly have stopped us 

 had it detained us a few weeks more. I would give up all 

 my pay to be sure of gaining 78 again, for the French and 

 Yankees will surely laugh if we are foiled in any one attempt. 

 Should we find much ice we shall be a long time in it doing 

 our endeavours to get South : they are fine times for me, as 

 the smooth water sailing is quite delightful, and it is a great 

 comfort to know that, if we cannot get on, we can always 

 go back with the S.W. winds and the drift of the ice. Should 

 we fail we shall all feel it deeply and almost wish to be 

 allowed to try again. It shall not, however, be our faults 

 if we do fail, it may be our misfortune and a very sad one. 

 None of us despair of success in beating the French and 

 Yankees ; but it is ourselves we want to beat, and thus 

 we are our own enemies. 



At the Falklands they stayed five months (April 6 to 

 September 8) and later another month, November 13 to 

 December 17, before the third and last trip to the ice, the 

 intervening two months being spent in a visit to Hermifce 

 Island, to the west of Cape Horn. 



A long series of magnetic observations was carried out ; 

 for Hooker, exploration, hunting, arrangement of collections 

 and letter writing filled up the time. Delighted though he 

 was to * be fast by the nose again ' at Port Louis in the wet 

 and mist of a storm that rose just too late to prevent their 

 entrance into the Sound, first impressions of the Falklands 

 were dismal. ' Kerguelen's Land is a paradise to it. Desola- 

 tion stares in our faces, except a few houses at the settlement 

 where there are about sixty souls, including His Excellency 



