BELLINGSHAUSEN 
125 
which reference has already been made. The Vostok and 
Mirni quitted Sydney on November nth, 1820, and a fort- 
night later they reached Macquarie Island where they ex- 
perienced the shock of a submarine earthquake while in 
50 fathoms of water. On December 7th, they crossed 
the parallel of 6o° S. in 163° E. at dinner-time, and the 
officers drank a toast to their friends at home in latitude 
6o° N. They remained south of that parallel for the 
unprecedented distance of 145 degrees of longitude and 
for a period of no less than two months and three days. 
The first ice was met on December 8th in 62° 18' S., a 
stately berg 80 feet high and a mile in circumference, 
its sides* carved by the weather so that it looked like a 
cathedral wall enriched with statues ; and from that time 
onwards the vessels never lost sight of the ice until they 
left South Georgia behind them on their homeward voy- 
age. The advance guard of icebergs was soon succeeded 
by heavy pack ice in which many huge bergs were 
frozen, one of them more than five miles in circum- 
ference being at first mistaken for land. Along the edge 
of this pack they cruised south of New Zealand, where 
had they been a month or so later and had their course 
been directed southwest instead of southeast they might 
have anticipated the great discoveries of Ross. It is 
interesting to note that at this point Bellingshausen takes 
some pains to explain why he did not enter the pack 
and push southward, his reason being that his ships were 
too weak ta stand any severe ice-pressure. The region 
had been avoided by Cook, hence the anxiety of his suc- 
cessor to attain a high latitude in it. 
As the ships proceeded the ice thickened and at one 
time more than a hundred majestic bergs were in sight. 
It was necessary to make a detour to the northward to 
