THE ICE-BARRIER. 
73 
resembled the deep porches of a Gothic cathedral, and reflected lights of the purest imaginable 
blue. An overhanging mass on one side of the berg 
showed the undermining actipn of the warmer sea water. 
After some time, such a mass breaks off by its own 
weight, the fracture presenting almost always the appear¬ 
ance of a smooth vertical wall of ice. The separation 
will necessarily affect the equilibrium of the floating berg; 
the side whence the fragment fell, being lighter, will rise 
out of the water, and the line of flotation will be 
altered, the former line now forming an angle with the surface of the sea, as seen in the 
sketch. Hence the successive beaches frequently observed upon the flanks of the bergs. 
THE ICE-BARRIER. 
On the 15th a chain of icebergs and pack-ice was seen to extend over a large portion 
of the horizon (from W.S.W. to NAV. by N., by compass); but the grandest sight was 
reserved for the 16th, the day on which we reached the most southerly point of our cruise. 
On this day we had probably reached what former navigators in the Antarctic have called 
the Ice-barrier—that is to say, an apparently uninterrupted accumulation of icebergs extending 
over many miles, and forming an immense wall of ice rising to from 100 to 200 feet above 
the sea-level. The experience of the succeeding days of our cruise, during which we skirted the 
limits of pack-ice extending eastward, combined with the facts ascertained by former explorers, 
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ICE-BARRIER. 
showed that such a barrier of ice seems to extend with little or no interruption from our position 
on the 16th, near the meridian of 8o° long. E., along the Antarctic Circle as far as long. 
170° E., where the wide opening occurs by which Sir James Ross was enabled to penetrate 
to the foot of Mount Erebus and Mount Terror. It seemed almost as if we had a similar 
opening before us, for towards the south-west the sea was quite free of ice. Shortly after 
noon we crossed the Antarctic Circle, and proceeded as far as lat. 66 40 S., long, 78 22 E. 
—just 1400 nautical miles from the South Pole. Sir James Ross had reduced this distance 
to little over 700 miles. To a sailor accustomed to runs of from 200 to 300 miles per day, 
« 
such distances appear almost trifling ; but they are immense when the space to be travelled 
over is beset with mountains of ice, and the temperature such as to render life next to 
impossible. Perhaps on a future day some daring navigator or enterprising whaler will try 
this opening between the meridians of long. and 80 S., and succeed in emulating if not 
surpassing the achievement of Sir James Ross. If the “Challengers mission had permitted 
it, and if we had found ourselves on board a smaller and handier craft, a good steamer and 
