456 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
In the evening we succeeded in beating up to a long line of scattered 
ice-islands, which had only very narrow channels between them. We 
imagined that the blocks of ice were the same as those among which it 
had been necessary to pick our way, when, on the 20th, we had tried to 
approach the land. We counted more than 150 ice-islands round us, 
among which several persons thought they could recognise some of 
those which we had already seen on the 20th. I have said already that 
all these islands had nearly the same appearance, and even though I did 
not think it was possible to recognise them by their particular form, I 
am, nevertheless, convinced that all these blocks of ice were the same as 
those in the midst of which we had steered our way on the 20th. 
However that may be, the wind, which abated in the night, shifting to 
the south and then to south-east, forced us soon to change our direction. 
I did not hesitate for a moment to run our corvettes into the middle of 
this chain of floating bergs, in order to escape as quickly as possible from 
the gulf where we had just been in such danger. 
Jan. 27.—During the night we again found ourselves surrounded by 
huge walls of ice which bound the floating islands, and the appearance 
of which, at such close quarters, had already seemed to us so imposing. 
It happened several times again that we found ourselves so much shut 
in between these threatening walls, that it was to be feared that at any 
moment our corvettes might be drawn into the eddy formed by the 
waves breaking round them. The night looked threatening. The sky 
gradually clouded over again, and we were able to congratulate ourselves 
on |having passed this chain of floating islands when daylight brought 
us strong east winds and much snow. I gave the o:der to direct our 
course northwards; at any price we must get away from the land; 
snow fell abundantly, and once more our course was fraught with the 
greatest danger. We redoubled our care and watchfulness in looking 
out for the icebergs, which at any moment might bar our passage, but 
the fog was so thick that in all probability we should not have had time 
to avoid them. At midday the man on watch signalled the ice-pack ; 
we had not had time to alter our course and bring her up to the wind, 
before we were right in the middle of it. Happily it was a false alarm; 
the icebergs (glagons), which had appeared to form a field of solid ice, 
were nothing but débris, through which it was easy to pass. It is 
probable, however, that they came from an ice-pack not far off, of which 
a part had been detached by the violence of the wind. However that 
may be, we were able to extricate ourselves easily, and as the wind was 
then blowing very strongly we hove-to, the head of the ship being set 
northwards. All day snow fell incessantly. We saw several floating 
islauds ; but by the evening we found ourselves quite free, 
Jan. 28.—During the 28th the wind went round again to the west. 
The sky cleared perceptibly, and at midday we could take our latitude ; 
I turned our head southwards, hoping we could continue our exploration 
