THE ICE. 263 



isolated observation. On the other hand, all Antarctic 

 travellers have been struck by the fact that the indi- 

 vidual fields were of less expanse than they are in the 

 Arctic Seas. Wilkes, for example, never saw one that 

 was more than one and a half miles across ; in Ross 

 Sea they are larger, but the largest were observed by 

 Ross to the south-east of Mount Haddington, where 

 they were sometimes five miles in diameter. It seems 

 that the protecting influence of the land makes itself felt 

 here, as the ice finds abundant support and shelter from 

 the waves. In the deep inlets strong coast ice was seen 

 that had lasted all through the summer, by Ross south- 

 west of Mount Haddington, by Larsen between Mount 

 Haddington and King Oscar Land, and again by Ross 

 west of Cape North in Victoria Land, and also west of 

 Mount Erebus. 



The surface on which sea ice is formed may probably 

 comprise all the coasts together with the adjacent arms 

 and inlets of the sea that penetrate some way into the 

 land ; this can be inferred from the breadth of the zone 

 of pack-ice through which Ross sailed in his second 

 voyage, and the extent of which is nearly equal to that 

 of Ross Sea. It is, however, for reasons previously 

 discussed, highly improbable that this ice covering forms 

 one unbroken mass ; on the contrary the ice is first broken 

 up, then crowded together, and the separate blocks piled 

 on the top of each other, till pack-ice is formed. But 

 even this will not bear comparison with the pack-ice of 

 the Arctic regions, as is expressly stated by Ross, 

 notwithstanding that he had met on his second voyage 

 ice masses that had undergone such very heavy pressure, 

 that not a single really level field was to be seen, every- 

 thing being confusedly piled up, and yet not towering 

 more than ten to fifteen feet above water. A peculiarity 

 very inconvenient to navigation is the circumstance that 

 large hard fragments of icebergs are imbedded in the 



