Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/388

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346
FIXED LAND ICE.
[Chap. XII.
1843

bight round to the south-east as far as we could see; a very great number of bergs were clustered together in the fixed ice, of unusually large size; several of them measuring four or five miles in diameter, and about two hundred feet high, must have broken away from some loftier barrier than we have yet seen in this vicinity. As we advanced to the southward, two high rugged bluff capes at a great distance appeared, bearing W.S.W. (true); the nearest of them I named, at the request of Captain Crozier, after his friend Captain Nicholas Lockyer, R.N. C.B., and the western-most in memory of our lamented shipmate the late Captain Foster, R.N.

At 2.30. p.m. when a quarter of a mile from the cliffs, we sounded in fifty-four fathoms, green sand and small black stones; and the rest of the day we continued to work our way amongst the bergs and loose ice towards the fixed land ice, with the intention of getting hold of it.

Jan. 8.The wind shifting to the eastward at 3 a.m., brought with it a thick fog; and, surrounded as we were by innumerable bergs aground in from eighty to one hundred fathoms, and frequently entangled amongst the loose ice, with the tide sweeping us in amongst them, we had great difficulty in avoiding collision with the bergs, and our situation was throughout the day most anxious and embarrassing. A calm succeeded, and, with the boats, we towed out to the south-east, closely followed by the Terror, and before midnight we had the