Voyage of Capt. Sir James C. Ross to the Antarctic. 27 



formidable as those of the polar bear and capable of inflicting 

 dangerous wounds. The males of the middle sized species 

 wound each other severely in their combats. 



A small ferocious looking fish inhabits these high latitudes 



only 6J inches long and weighing 2£ ounces : they are preyed 



upon by the seals and petrels and they in turn devour the smaller 

 crabs and Limacinae. In a region where there is no vegetation 

 a chain of animal existences is sustained by each preying upon 

 that below it, and ultimately the infusorial animalcules afford a 

 pabulum* which forms the last link in the chain. 



Jan. 19. — They contended for several days with the ice, avail- 

 ing themselves of every opening; when moored to the ice floes 

 their eight inch cables were snapped like cords, for the wind had 

 risen to a heavy gale. Soon after midnight they found it impos- 

 sible, any longer, to hold on to the floe, and therefore took shelter 

 under a berg, nearly a mile in diameter, dodging about in the 

 mean time in search of an opening. The sea rose to a fearful 

 height breaking over the loftiest bergs ; the ships were entangled 

 in an ocean of rolling fragments of ice hard as granite, and which 

 were dashed against them with so much violence that the masts 

 quivered to their fall, which was instantly expected. Both ships 

 having carried away their rudders their condition seemed des- 

 perate ; hour after hour passed without relief, and it seemed al- 

 most impossible that the ships should any longer sustain the 

 shocks which were every moment received. The loud crashing 

 noise of the straining and working of the timbers and decks was 

 sufficient to appall the stoutest heart, but during the twenty-eight 

 hours of this fearful struggle all did their duty with composure 

 and firmness. The storm was at its height at 2 p. m. when the 

 barometer stood at 28-40 inches; after that time it began to rise. 

 But the swell had not subsided ; the ships still rolled and groaned 

 amidst the ruins of crashing icebergs, over which the ocean pour- 

 ed its mountainous waves, throwing large masses upon one an- 

 other, and then submerging them again, dashing and grinding 

 them together with fearful violence. The awful grandeur of the 

 scene can neither be imagined nor described ; the people watched 

 with breathless anxiety the effect of each collision and the vibra- 

 l ;°n of the tottering masts whose fall it would have been impos- 

 sible to prevent. The ships were so near to each other that they 

 mounted the ridges of two contiguous waves, while the deep 

 chasm between was filled with rolling masses of ice ; and as the 

 ships descended into the hollow between the billows, the main 

 fopsail yard of each could be seen from the deck of the other 

 just level with the crest of the intervening wave. 



m + 4. Th ? Se ' howe ver, must ultimately derive their support from vegetable infused 

 Dlatter br °ugto, it may be, from other elim< —M 



