404 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



then distant about 45 miles. Numerous icebergs were in sight. During the afternoon the 

 ice blink was seen ahead, and at 6 p.m. the pack was plainly in sight from E. by S. to 

 S. by W. (true). At 7.30 p.m. the ship stopped off the edge of the pack in lat. 64° 18' S., 

 long. 94° 47' E., but although the horizon was clear to the eastward nothing was seen 

 of Wilkes' Termination Land, the supposed position of which was then 20 miles east. 

 The pack preventing the vessel steaming farther east, a sounding was obtained in 1 300 

 fathoms, blue mud, Station 155 (see Sheet 23), and then the ship laid to for the night 

 under gaff mainsail and jib. At 5 p.m. eighty-eight icebergs were counted from the deck. 

 At sunset the horizon was remarkably clear to the southward and eastward, but to the 

 northward there were dense masses of cumulus cloud, and the sky had a hard appearance. 

 The barometer rose from 29-103 to 29-163 at 2 p.m., and then fell to 29'039 inches at 

 midnight. Mean temperature of the air 31°"3, of the sea surface 32°"1. During the day 

 an iceberg was passed with a large rock on it, the first hitherto seen, the berg was too 

 far off to distinguish the nature of the rock, or whether it had on it more than one. 

 The bergs passed were nearly all tabular. 



On the 24th, at 4 a.m., the dredge was put over, but the barometer falling quickly 

 \<_ 3V 2 / > 



F10. 154.— H.. M.S. Challenger alter collision with ail iceberg, 24th February 1S74. From a sketch by Lieut. Aldrich, K.N. 



and a southeasterly wind springing up and rapidly increasing to a gale, it was hove 

 up at 9 a.m. empty. At this time the weather looked very threatening, and snow 

 began to fall, so the ship steamed under the lee of a berg and the topsails were close- 

 reefed. Whilst keeping head to wind under the berg, steaming slowly, a sudden lull for 

 a minute, by removing the force against which the screw was acting, caused the ship to 

 gather headway, and before the engines could be stopped the vessel ran into the berg 

 and carried away the jib-boom, martingale, and one of the whiskers. The ship was 



