Farthest South. 285 
The vessel may lay fast for weeks, while suddenly a 
favourable circumstance might allow the pack to open 
in slack ice, and the ship might reach a very high 
latitude. These are favourable conditions, but the 
absence of land to the north allows the big swell of 
the south-westerly trades to reach the Antarctic pack, 
which thus affords great danger to a vessel, whether 
it be near the edge of the pack where the grinding 
ice-blocks would chew her timber, or whether she 
be so far in the pack that the swell does not reach 
her directly ; but owing to the pressure caused by the 
gales, and the swell from the north, met by heavy 
pressure from similar causes from the south, very 
ICE WEIGHED HER DOWN. 
heavy screw takes place and threatens to crush the 
staunchest of vessels. In winter time tremendous 
screwings take place in the Antarctic ice-pack, near 
