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CHAPTER VIII.
The magnificent range of stupendous bergs which 1842
March 1.had occasioned us so much uneasiness during the night, was again seen this morning, extending in an unbroken chain to the northward as far as the eye could discern from the mast-head, and joining on with that large cluster through which we had been so mercifully guided during the storm and thick fog of the 11th of February, when on our way to the southward. The pack edge was observed stretching several miles to the westward of the bergs, and terminating in a point which we rounded at 1 p.m. It consisted of an accumulation of the heaviest masses of ice I ever remember to have seen, of a deep blue colour, and much worn and rounded by the action of the sea. Several hundred seals were plunging and splashing about off the point, and two or three that were on the ice, appeared with much difficulty to maintain their hold as the waves broke over them. From this point the ice trended away to the eastward, but the long line of bergs obliged us to pursue a north easterly course. At noon our latitude was 69° 52′ S., longitude 180°; the magnetic dip 83° 36′ S., and the variation had decreased to 33° 7′ E.
