







Voyage of Capt. Sir James C. Ross to the Antarctic. 15 



England, the thermometer was at 12° and at noon only 14°. 

 This cold was strongly contrasted with that of the northern seas, 

 where in the corresponding season streams of water were con- 

 stantly pouring from every iceberg. 



Feb. 1 1. — Their escape from the ice barrier was critical. New 

 ice rapidly formed ; the pack closed in upon them and they were 

 extricated only by a favorable conjuncture of the wind and great 

 exertions in breaking the ice. They were hardly liberated before 

 a violent gale came on with numerous icebergs all around : one 

 of them was four miles long although not more than 150 feet 

 out of the water, and doubtless a quarter of a mile beneath it. 



During the gale the decks and rigging of the ships and the 



clothes of the people were coated with ice. 



Feb. 14. — The dip increased to 87°, showing that they were 

 again approaching the magnetic pole now distant about 360 miles ; 

 the variation was 91°. The nearest approach to the magnetic 

 pole had been about eighty leagues. 



Feb. 16. — Being becalmed in the afternoon, they saw some 

 magnificent eruptions of Mount Erebus. The lighted cinders 

 were projected to a great height, but no flowing lava was seen as 

 before, although the exhibitions were upon a much grander scale. 



Feb. 17.— In latitude 76° 12' S., long. 164° E., the variation 

 was 109° 24' E. and the dip 88° 40'. They were within 160 miles 

 of the magnetic pole ; but an impenetrable barrier of ice prevented 

 a nearer approach. They deeply regretted the impossibility of 

 wintering in those regions: could they have found a nook where 

 the ships would have been safe, land parties could easily have 

 reached the volcano and the magnetic pole. The position of the 

 latter is however accurately known from calculation. 



Feb. 19. — Mount Erebus was still in view — distant fifty 

 leagues. The young ice formed rapidly around them presenting 

 a continuous sheet, as far as vision extended ; the ships could 

 make little or no headway: but by rolling the boats before the 

 ships' bow they succeeded in breaking it up. Along the barrier 

 every bay was filled with packed ice so that the ships had no 

 place in which to be secure ; the clifls were from 200 to 500 feet 

 high and a chain of bergs ranged for miles in front of them as 

 one outwork of frost. 



Feb. 23.— Soundings in ISO fathoms brought up coral ; the 

 icebergs appeared to be all aground as none of them were less 

 than 160 feet out of water. 



Feb. 24.-^An enormous glacier was distinctly traced descend- 

 ing as a continuous mass from near the tops of the mountains 

 several miles into the sea, ending in stupendous cliffs in which a 

 deep bay was formed having no passage except that by which 

 the ships entered. 



The variation diminished from 114° W. to 40° W. ; 74° in 

 about 360 miles; the dip was now 86°. 



