Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/232

204 season had been frustrated by our protracted and tedious detention in the pack, and the difficulties of penetrating a mass of more than a thousand miles in thickness had been overcome by the perseverance and exertions of my companions, still the time that was consumed in that laborious and fatiguing work left us only a few days of the worst part of the season to pursue our purpose. We had, however, during that brief space attained a somewhat higher latitude than last year: we had traced the continuation of the barrier ten degrees of longitude further to the eastward, and had extended our researches over a large portion of the hitherto unexplored parts of those regions; an amount of success, which, whilst struggling in the pack, few of us could have anticipated, had resulted from our endeavours to justify the trust which had been placed in our hands, and to call forth our heartfelt gratitude to Him by whose providence we had been so mercifully preserved and guided through the many dangers which we had encountered.

As soon as we got clear of the bay ice, I made known my intentions by signal to Commander Crozier to run to the northward along the pack edge to seek for any opening which might lead us by a shorter course by the ne plus ultra of Cook, to the Falkland Islands, where I proposed to winter, and refit the ships before making a third effort to gain a high southern latitude,