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



Jan. 21. — The storm abated in violence. They found they had 

 made progress. The sea was more open but they judged it best 

 to force the ships into the thickest of the pack, where they moored 

 them to a large cake of ice which lay between the ships and the 

 pack which was now comparatively quiet. By great exertions the 

 damages were repaired in the course of three or four days ; new 

 rudders were shipped, — the hulls of the vessels were found to be 

 nearly tight and had sustained no vital injury, and thus after five 

 weeks of the most precious part of the season were lost by their 

 detention in the ice, they were now in a condition to prosecute 

 their enterprise in the brief period of summer that remained. 



The next month, January 26 to February 28, was passed in 

 arduous efforts, and severe conflicts were experienced of the same 

 general character as those of which an abstract has been given. 



Feb. 1.— Lat. 67° 18' S.,long. 158° 12' W., the clear sea came 

 into view ; and the margin of the pack, seen through the deep- 

 ening shades of night, presented a fearful line of breakers, but 

 they felt compelled to pass through at all risks. 



Feb. 4.— They were in lat. 68° 50' S., long. 160° 20'; the dip 

 was 81° 37' and the variation 29° 41/ E. The Terror was on 

 fire for two hours near the kelson, but a deluge of water poured 

 from a powerful engine, making it two feet deep in the hold, ex- 

 tinguished the fire without giving the alarm to the other ship. 



Feb. 8. — They passed a berg of four miles in diameter, be- 

 lieved to be the same they saw last year, February 13, in lat. 76° 

 11' S., long. 172° 7' W.; that seen to-day was in 70° 30' S., 

 long. 173° 10' W. 



Feb. 21. — A small fish was found in the ice, frozen upon the 

 bow of the Terror supposed to have been suddenly caught by 

 the freezing of the water. 



Feb. 22. — In lat. 76° 42' S., a piece of ice was seen bearing 

 a black rock apparently six feet in diameter, and the next day 

 numerous stones and patches of soil were observed upon the bergs 

 indicating the proximity of land. 



The barrier of ice was seen rising 107 feet above the sea ; it 

 was probably attached to the continent in lat. 78° IV S., long. 

 161° V W. This, the extreme southern latitude attained, was 

 six miles south of that which had been reached last year. 



Mountains of great height with an undulating surface entirely 

 covered with snow were seen from the mast head ; such at least 

 was the appearance, but the conclusion was adopted with some 

 caution. 



Feb. 24. — The young ice formed so fast as to present an un- 

 broken sheet from the mast head, and a very short delay might 

 fix the ships and detain them through a south polar winter; with 

 a favoring breeze they therefore pushed on with all sail set, and 



after breaking through thirty miles of ice they were once more 



in clear water. 



