62 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
south of where it ran in the days of Ross. Though this 
Barrier may be the largest in the world, it is one of many. 
The most modern review of this mystery, Scott’s article 
on The Great Ice Barrier, must serve until the next first- 
hand examination by some future explorer. 
A berg shows only about one-eighth of its total mass 
above water, and a berg two hundred feet high will there- 
fore reach approximately fourteen hundred feet below the 
surface of the sea. Winds and currents have far more in- 
fluence upon them than they have upon the pack, through 
which these bergs plough their way with a total disregard 
for such flimsy obstacles, and cause much chaos as they go. 
For the rest woe betide the ship which 1s so fixed into the 
pack that she cannot move if one of these monsters bears 
down upon her. 
Words cannot tell the beauty of the scenes through 
which we were to pass during the next three weeks. I sup- 
pose the pack in winter must be a terrible place enough: 
a place of darkness and desolation hardly to be found else- 
where. But forms which under different conditions can 
only betoken horror now conveyed to us impressions of the 
utmost peace and beauty, for the sun had kissed them all. 
‘““We have had a marvellous day. The morning watch 
was cloudy, but it gradually cleared until the sky was a brill- 
iant blue, fading on the horizon into green and pink. The 
floes were pink, floating in a deep blue sea, and all the 
shadows were mauve. We passed right under a monster 
berg, and all day have been threading lake after lake and 
lead after lead. ‘There is Regent Street,’ said somebody, 
and for some time we drove through great streets of per- 
pendicular walls of ice. Many a time they were so straight 
that one imagined they had been cut off with a ruler some 
hundreds of yards in length.” 4 
On another occasion : 
“Stayed on deck till midnight. The sun just dipped 
below the southern horizon. The scene was incomparable. 
The northern sky was gloriously rosy and reflected in the 
calm sea between the ice, which varied from burnished — 
1 My own diary. 
