deavoured to find a
passage to the southward, with the constant risk, in thick weather, of
running foul of icebergs, or of getting fast in the packed ice which
might any moment enclose them, while all the time they were exposed to
storms of snow and sleet, with a constant frost, although it was the
middle of summer. Dangerous as it was sailing among icebergs, or, as
Captain Cook calls them, ice-rocks, especially in thick weather, the
ships were in still greater peril when surrounded by packed ice, which
consisted of huge slabs, of great thickness, varying from thirty or
forty feet down to three or four feet square, packed close together, and
often piled one on another. Stout as were the ships, it was not
expected that they could resist the enormous pressure to which they
would be subjected should they get caught in such frozen bonds. It was
the opinion of those on board that this sort of ice was formed only in
bays and rivers, and that therefore they must be near land, which was
eagerly though vainly looked-for. So severe was the cold that an
iceberg examined by the master had no water running down it, as is
generally the case in summer.

Captain Cook now steered to the west, in the hope of getting round the
ice; but though he held on this course for some time, both to the south
and west of the supposed position of Cape Circumcision, he neither fell
in with it, nor did he observe any of the usual indications of land.
Various birds, however, were seen, and several of them were shot; but as
they would find roosting-places on the ice islands, they might have come
a very great distance from the land. Thus, the penguins, which were
seen in great numbers on some icebergs, and are supposed never to go far
from land, might have come a very great distance over the ice from their
native haunts. Be that as it may, no land was seen by either vessel,
notwithstanding the diligent search made for it.

On December 31, while the ships were still surrounded by ice, a strong
gale sprang up, with a heavy sea, which made it very dangerous for them
to remain in the position in which they then were. The peril was yet
further increased by an immense field of ice which appeared to the
north, extending from north-east by east to south-west by west, and
between two and three miles off. The ships received several severe
blows from masses of ice of the largest size. Providentially, they got
clear by the afternoon, for at that time the win