til it faded in the south-west. But the
ship had come up with the solid floe-ice once more, and had to give
way and steam along its edge. This floating breakwater held us off and
frustrated all attempts to reach the goal which we sought.

"The next four days was a period of violent gales and heavy seas which
drove the ship some distance to the north. Nothing was visible through
swirling clouds of snow. The 'Aurora' behaved admirably, as she
invariably does in heavy weather. The main pack was encountered on
January 29, but foggy weather prevailed. It was not until noon on
January 31 that the atmosphere was sufficiently clear to obtain good
observations. The ship was by this time in the midst of heavy floe in
the vicinity of longitude 119 degrees E., and again the course had swung
round to south. We had soon passed to the south of Balleny's Sabrina
Land without any indication of its existence. Considering the doubtful
character of the statements justifying its appearance on the chart, it
is not surprising that we did not verify them.

"At 11 A.M. the floes were found too heavy for further advance. The
ship was made fast to a big one and a large quantity of ice was taken
on board to replenish the fresh-water supply. A tank of two hundred
gallons' capacity, heated within by a steam coil from the engineroom,
stood on the poop deck. Into this ice was continuously fed, flowing away
as it melted into the main tanks in the bottom of the ship.

"At noon the weather was clear, but nothing could be discerned in the
south except a faint blue line on the horizon. It may have been a 'lead'
of water, an effect of mirage, or even land-ice--in any case we could
not approach it."

The position as indicated by the noon observations placed the ship
within seven miles of a portion of Totten's High Land in Wilkes's
charts. As high land would have been visible at a great distance, it
is clear that Totten's High Land either does not exist or is situated a
considerable distance from its charted location. A sounding was made in
three hundred and forty fathoms.

[TEXT ILLUSTRATION]

Ship's track in the vicinity of Knox Land and Budd Land

Towards evening the 'Aurora' turned back to open water and cruised along
the pack-ice. A sounding next day showed nine hundred and twenty-seven
fathoms.

It was about this time that a marked improvement was noted in the
compass. Ever since the first approach to Adelie Land it had been found
unreliable