26 Voyage of Capt. Sir James C. Ross to the Antarctic, 



there was no land above water within 100 miles. In others 

 were found fish and shrimps, their proper food. 



Dec. 25. — Christmas day was passed in close packed ice, near 

 a chain of eleven bergs and in a thick fog ; but the people were 

 still cheered by Christmas fare reserved for the occasion. 



Dec. 26-30. — Becalmed in a sea-lake surrounded by ice ; there 

 appeared no chance of escape, and therefore mooring the ships 

 to the ice the crews were employed in filling the water tanks 



with ice. 



Dec. 31. — The year closed gloomily in this icy prison ; the 



ice was much broken and heaped and no piece was on a level, 



thus proving the enormous pressure to which it was subjected. 



No piece was seen over a quarter of a mile across, whereas in 



the Arctic regions, floes and fields of several miles in diameter 



are common, and sometimes from the mast-head the boundary 



cannot be discovered. The difference is occasioned by the 



comparative quiet of the northern, and the turbulence of the 



southern polar seas. 



Jan. 1, 1842. — No outlet was visible from the mast head ; 

 they had advanced 250 miles into the pack, and were in lat. 

 66° 32' S., long. 156° 28' W. They had crossed the Antarctic 

 circle this season on the same day as the last, and were now 1400 

 miles east of the meridian on which they passed it at that time. 



Warm clothing was distributed, and new year's day was spent 

 in customary hilarity and festivitv. Temperature of the sea at 

 the surface 28°, at 1050 fathoms 39°-6. 



Gales succeeded, and drifted the pack wilh the ships to the 

 north, but they found occasionally some clear water and managed 

 to regain a part of the space they had lost, but it was a severe 

 service in the midst of thick snow storms, and with vessels and 

 rigging encumbered with ice. 



Jan. 11. — The great penguins were numerous, and several 



were brought on board alive, but it was a difficult and cruel ope- 

 ration to kill them, until they resorted to hydrocyanic (prussic) 

 acid, a teaspoonful of which destroyed life in less than one min- 

 ute. The largest weighed seventy-eight pounds. They are stu- 

 pid birds and allow themselves to be knocked on the head with 

 a bludgeon. Their food consists of crabs and other Crustacea, 

 and in the stomach was frequently found ten pounds weight of 

 pebbles, granite, quartz and trap. When alarmed they skated 

 along over the snow faster than the people could follow them; 

 lying down on the belly they impel themselves by their power- 

 ful feet, using their short wings to steady them laterally. 



The largest seals that were captured measured twelve feet long 

 by six in circumference — weighed 850 pounds and yielded more 

 than sixteen gallons of oil. In the stomach of one they found 

 twenty-eight pounds of fish. The largest seals have teeth as 



