Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/16

viii W., but the prevalence for several days of the densest fogs frustrated all attempts to sight the land. This was much regretted, for few of the plants of that interesting group are known to botanists. After tracing the Macrocystis into the 57th parallel, the ships entered an ice-pack of immense magnitude on the 18th of December, in lat. 62° S. Here we were entangled till Feb. 2nd, 1842 (the midsummer of those cheerless regions), making no more progress during that time than from the latitude just mentioned to 68°, where we emerged into comparatively open water to the southward of a large body of the pack, which however trended to the westward. At this time the season was far advanced, and as, in the preceding year, the retreat had been commenced, through absolute necessity, on the 9th of February, so Captain Ross did not think proper now to re-enter the pack-ice, but proceeded along its edge to the westward, advancing so far as 187° W., and then to the southward and eastward. On the 20th of February a gale came on, which, though in open water, was sufficiently trying; the wind was very high, and the spray which beat over the ships became frozen ere it reached the deck, forming every object into a mass of ice; the coils of rope were covered by an icy incrustation several inches thick, and most of the running-gear about the bowsprits was carried away by the weight of ice formed on it.

On the 23rd of February the expedition came in view of the grand Victoria Barrier: the day being fine, the voyagers approached within a mile and a half of the Barrier, finally reaching 78° 10' S. lat. in the long. 162° W., having made six miles farther than in the preceding year, the highest latitude hitherto attained. Under all circumstances, this was more than had been expected; for after the long detention, the rapidly closing season rendered any progress very difficult; but it was a great object to verify the magnetic and other observations, and to ascertain still more positively the position of the pole. Unable to proceed eastward, the retreat was commenced, tracing the pack edge. Seaweed was again met with on reaching the parallel of 64°, and occasionally seen when running down the parallel of 60°, from 170° W. to 80° W., and thence in great abundance to the Falkland Islands, where the ships anchored in Berkeley Sound on the 6th of April 1842, not having seen land for 138 days, since leaving New Zealand.

A prolonged stay in the Falklands, though the season was winter (April to the beginning of September), afforded ample opportunities for thoroughly investigating the