Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/302

210 The gale, which rather freshened during the night, gradually veered more to the eastward; we therefore wore round and stood towards the land on the port tack; but, owing to the continuance of thick and snowy weather during the whole of Sunday, we did not get sight of it until 7, when it was indistinctly seen ahead of the ship. At midnight we were in lat. 74° 29′ by observation. We carried all sail, and both wind and sea abating, we approached the land rapidly; the barometer which had been rising throughout the gale, reached the unusual height of 29.33 at 4 the next morning; the line of coast was at this time distinctly seen, but at a great distance: a heavy pack extended at least forty or fifty miles from the shore, into which we stood amongst the loose ice as far as we could without getting beset; this I did not think proper to hazard, as it would assuredly have occasioned considerable loss of time without any equivalent advantage, and every hour at this period of the season was of much importance to us. I have no doubt that, had it been our object, we might have penetrated it several miles further, for although heavy-looking ice, it was not very densely packed, nor any thing like the solid land-ice we had seen further to the northward, and we should certainly have made the attempt, had not the land imposed an insuperable barrier to our reaching the Pole, which we still hoped to accomplish by a more circuitous route; and we were not then in a condition to be content with any thing short of complete