Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/258

172 see a very small extent, owing to the thick weather; we were therefore obliged, after running a short distance along the edge of it, to haul off to the northward, to prevent getting entangled amongst the loose ice, with a considerable swell, and too little wind to make any way through it. At noon we were in lat. 66° 32′ S. and long. 169° 45′ E. The magnetic dip 82.35, and the variation 28.21.

Being New-Year's-day, an additional allowance of provisions was served to the ships' crews, as was the practice on all the arctic voyages; and a complete suit of warm clothing was issued gratis to each individual; this had been provided by the liberality of the government, and on our entering the icy regions, could not but prove to be as useful and acceptable a new-year's gift as they could have received. Mutual congratulations passed between the officers and crews of the ships, and the day was kept, as in old England, in conviviality and rejoicing. Being amongst numerous icebergs and having a great deal of loose ice about us, added greatly to the interest of the day to those who had never been amongst it before; and those who had could not but share in some degree the excitement and delight of their companions. We had, indeed, met with the pack in a much lower latitude than we had anticipated; but from the little we had seen of it we were by no means dispirited by the early appearance of so serious an obstruction to our progress, for it presented none of those evidences of impenetrability we had been led to expect.