224 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
at one time) until on March 25th, she got as far as 68° 
S. in 95 0 44' W. in bad weather and after constant 
fogs. Here to the surprise of all on board a sail was 
sighted and proved to be the tender Flying Fish. That 
little schooner under Lieutenant Walker had been 
much more successful than her larger consort. She 
had faithfully carried out the instructions, had visited 
each of the appointed rendezvous, and then proceeded 
to 105° W., where on March 21, she was running south- 
ward at 8 knots, approaching the seventieth parallel 
and seemed certain to get beyond Cook’s farthest, when 
ice appeared ahead and the way was barred in 70° S. 
Next day Walker began to work his way back to the 
north, and his official report so pithily described his 
escape from being frozen in, that we quote it verbatim: 
“ The weather grew thicker and intensely cold, 
though the thermometer did not fall below 30° ; I 
attributed these changes to the ice to windward, and, 
believing that we were getting into a clear sea, I 
stepped below to stick my toes in the stove. I had not 
been below certainly five minutes when the look-out called 
to me that the fog had lifted, and that we were sur- 
rounded. I jumped on deck, and such was too truly 
the case ; narrow fields of ice with narrow passages of 
water between, and extending longitudinally in a direc- 
tion perpendicular to the wind, formed a complete circle 
round us stretching in all directions as far as the eye 
could reach, and beyond, icebergs, packed and floating 
ice. I did not know at first how I should proceed, but 
after a careful look round, I ran over to the weather 
shore of the pond, and stood along it in search of a pas- 
sage that I could not find ; but, observing at intervals 
* sutures ’ in the ice, where it did not appear firmly 
