104 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Jan. 



heavy streams of pack-ice drifting along the land, and this 

 took us well outside the group of rocky islets on which 

 Ross landed, and which he named the Possession Islands. 

 Our navigator took advantage of fine weather to swing the 

 ship ; this means that the ship was gradually turned round, 

 and as her head pointed in certain directions, observations of 

 the sun were taken from which the error of the compass could 

 be computed. I have already explained how highly important 

 the finding of the compass errors at various places was, but it 

 should be added that since the error in any spot might differ 

 according to the direction of the ship's head, it was also 

 necessary that an allowance should be made for the particular 

 direction of the ship's head when an observation was made. 

 It was to obtain this allowance that the ' Discovery ' was swung, 

 and therein we held an immense advantage over Sir James 

 Ross, who had been unable to manoeuvre his sailing-ships in 

 this manner ; but although we realised the advantage of swing- 

 ing, it involved not a few trials and tribulations : sometimes 

 when we had stopped for this work, clouds would come flying 

 across the face of the sun, and we had to wait patiently until 

 they had passed; at others, the wind would spring up and 

 make the ship so difficult to handle that it was some time 

 before we could get her steadied on the various courses ; and 

 as these delays tended to fritter away the valuable hours of 

 our open season, it can be imagined that we did not regard 

 them with complacency. 



Owing to our being continually forced to edge out to 

 seaward to avoid streams of pack, by the morning of the nth 

 we were well clear of the land, which, however, could be very 

 distinctly seen in the distance, and gave us much to think and 

 talk about as we recognised the various peaks and headlands 

 which Sir James Ross had named. 



We still stood to the south, but our progress was slow 

 owing to a brisk S.E. wind, and to the fact that we were only 

 using one boiler. As I have pointed out, of all economies 

 practised on board, the most important was that of coal, and 

 every device by which a saving could be effected in this respect 



