i9o2] SURROUNDED BY BERGS 137 



miles in one direction, and as probably more in another. But 

 yet more unwelcome to our eyes than this formidable array of 

 bergs was the vast amount of heavy pack-ice which lay scat* 

 tered in all directions, and blocking the channels between the 

 bergs. Though our hearts sank at the thought of so much 

 obstruction, we could afford to admire such a majestic and 

 impressive ice scene. Under a dark, threatening sky the pack- 

 ice showed intensely white in an inky sea, whilst the towering 

 walls of the icebergs frowned over us, shaded from the palest 

 to the most intense blue. 



Most of the icebergs seemed aground, and as their height 

 often exceeded 200 feet and our soundings were comparatively 

 shallow, I have little doubt that the majority were at least 

 temporarily at anchor. For a few brief minutes we could see 

 the distant outline of our snow-covered land as we threaded 

 our way amongst these great ice-masses and through the 

 shifting streams of pack which lay between them, then for the 

 time all attention had to be devoted to navigation. As our 

 water supply was getting short, early in the afternoon we were 

 obliged to secure to a large floe in order to replenish it. We 

 had little difficulty in finding a suitable one, as the pack-ice 

 about us was heavier than anything we had yet seen. It is 

 evident that in this region there is much pressure and a con- 

 siderable snowfall, as the floes were very hummocky and their 

 snow-covering thick ; but the ice itself was by no means so 

 hard as that which we had met near the coast of Victoria Land. 



During the afternoon the weather cleared somewhat, and 

 for the first time for many days the sun shone forth. There 

 was little wind, and the low temperature was already forming 

 young ice over the calmer patches of sea. After a few hours' 

 delay we pushed on once more, and, passing through a very 

 narrow channel between two bergs, reached a sheet of open 

 water which appeared to stretch for a long distance to the 

 north, but this was bounded on the right by a sheet of fast 

 sea-ice, whose edge ran almost due north and threatened to 

 carry us farther from the land which we had last seen trending 

 in a north-easterly direction. 



