Chap. XII.]
CLEAR THE MAIN PACK.
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1843
for an opening, but it led us far to the northward, so that at noon we were in latitude 63° 59′ S., longitude 54° 35′ W., magnetic dip 62° 53′, variation 20° 15' E. At 2. 15. P.M., whilst waiting for the Terror, which had been caught between two floes, we sounded in two hundred and ten fathoms, on green mud, the temperature at 150 fathoms being 30°, that at the surface 32°.
The pack still trending to the northward, deterred me from following it any farther, and determined me to enter it, and try to force the ships through, to the east extreme of the fixed land ice, to which we were fast on the 9th; as the open state of the pack at this part gave me considerable hope of success. But after exhausting the whole of the next week in the arduous and hazardous struggle, we found ourselves still far short of our position on the 4th instant; being at noon the 24th in latitude 64° 24′ S., and longitude 55° 11′ W., Jan. 24.magnetic dip 63° 4′, in one hundred and eighty-five fathoms soundings, on green sand; and notwithstanding the unremitting and strenuous exertions of officers and men, we were unable to get any further to the southward, the pack carrying us back with it to the northward faster than we could warp or work through it; nevertheless, we continued our endeavours until the end of the month, Jan. 31.fruitless as they proved to be, for on that day our latitude was reduced to 64° 0′ S., the longitude being 55° 18′ W., the magnetic dip 62° 42′ S., and the variation 22° 8′ E. Cockburn Island at a dis-