Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/583

On December 26, in Lat. 63° S., we passed the first iceberg of the voyage, an old disrupted berg, and as we Dec. 26, 63° 43′ S., 166° 36′ W. advanced southward all kinds of icebergs were to be seen. The ice-log shows a greater number and variety of bergs on this than on the two preceding voyages.

Dec. 29, 1912, 69° 28′ S., 166° 15′ W. The great belt of Antarctic pack ice was not reached until December 29, when we had attained the 69th parallel.

On comparison with the records of earlier voyages it will be seen that the northern limit of the pack this year lay two degrees farther south than found on voyages made in more western longitudes.

The only other Expedition that has explored this part of the Ross Sea was that under Sir James Ross, who found a line of compact hummocky ice in the same position in 1842; this confirmation throws some light on the trend of the pack in this quadrant.

We had expected to meet with pack ice on crossing the Antarctic Circle, and our expectations not being realised, the ship's company looked forward to an almost ice-free voyage to the Ross Sea.

Our hopes were frustrated. The day after entering the pack we encountered heavy bay ice, which retarded us to such an extent that we could scarcely make more than one mile an hour on our course. We had a tremendous struggle this season to get into the Ross Sea at all, and not until we had fought our way for over 400 miles did we really get through the pack.