into which we were standing, and which we could perceive was bounded by cliffs of a similar character; but it came on to blow a gale of wind by the time we had got within a mile of the southeast Cape of the Bay; and as we were quite near enough to see that there could be no place in it that would suit our purpose, we wore round and stood away from this dangerous coast for the night.
We had a very good view of Cape North whilst close in with the icy cliffs, and observed that a high wall of ice, of a similar character to that which extends from Cape Crozier, forming the great barrier of 78° ¼ S., and which prevented our further progress to the southward, stretched away to the westward from the Cape, as far as we could see from the mast-head, and probably formed a coast line of considerable extent; a close, compact, impenetrable body of ice occupied the whole space to the northward and westward.
Our magnetic observations here were of very great interest, showing an extraordinary change in the variation from 114° W. to 40° W., amounting to no less than 74° in a space of about three hundred and sixty miles; the dip had also diminished, as might have been expected, to 86°.
Feb. 25.Still blowing hard from the westward. We wore before daylight, and stood towards the ice, to continue the examination of it; in a few hours we got close up to the pack edge, which filled the whole space between us and the wall of ice pro-