356 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
it is down there, but in the evidence which is afforded as 
to the movement of the water, the effects of which are 
made apparent not in the sea alone but in the air and 
in the weather of all parts of the Earth’s surface. This 
observing station was peculiarly interesting for it was the 
point nearest to the South Pole at which the conditions 
of the deep ocean had been observed and the forms of 
life dwelling on the sea-bed collected. When the dredge 
was hauled the ship proceeded along the edge of the 
pack westward in the hope of getting into a clearer sea. 
On the 1 6th the weather was remarkably clear, and 
from the masthead the ice seemed to form a continuous 
barrier, though on steaming toward it the apparently 
smooth wall was found to consist of numerous separate 
bergs, all about 200 feet high, and some of them as much 
as four miles in length. For a time Nares hoped to be able 
to make a landing on the ice for magnetic observations ; 
but the smaller pieces were rising and falling with the 
swell so as to be useless for the purpose, while the steep 
sides of the larger ice-islands made their flat tops quite 
inaccessible. 
At 2.30 p. m. on 16th February, 1874, the position of 
66° 40' S. was reached, 8 miles within the Antarctic 
circle, in 78° 22' E. No pack ice was then in sight and 
a clear sky to the southward promised well for an attempt 
to reach higher latitudes. It was evident that the pack 
seen on previous days was only a detached floe. Pen- 
guins and whales were in sight and many pieces of broken 
ice. It was not however the intention to make a high 
latitude or to push southward until the way was blocked 
by ice, and the Challenger turned, content with having 
been the first steam vessel to touch and cross the magic 
circle of the south. 
