206
STRENGTH OF THE BAY ICE.
[Chap. VII.
1842
p.m., when we were obliged promptly to shorten sail, and to haul out to the westward, nor did we clear the northern part of it until after midnight. The barometer, which had been falling all the morning and afternoon, stood at 28º.380 at 6 p.m., but had risen to 28º.415 by midnight, the wind at the same time shifting to the southward.
Feb. 26.The general trending of the main pack carried us much farther to the westward than we wished; but it was so close and heavy that we could not venture to enter it. As we continued the examination, we frequently got entangled amongst the newly formed ice and streams which occurred at some distance from its margin; favoured, however, with a fine breeze from the southwestward, we pursued our way to the northward, and at noon were in latitude 72º 46′ S., and longitude 170º 01′ W. In the evening we found that in our anxiety to keep as near the pack edge as possible, we had run far into another of its deep indentations, we therefore hauled to the wind on the port tack, in order to weather its lee point; this we were very uncertain about during the whole night, the ship being surrounded with thick young ice, rapidly increasing in strength, with the temperature at 22º: at times we were hardly able to make any way through it, notwithstanding the fresh breeze that was blowing, and owing to the darkness of the night we could not know whether the ships might not be falling down upon the pack