until the 22nd. Apparently this wind had crowded the ice into the
bight of the Weddell Sea, and the ship was now drifting south-west with
the floes which had enclosed it. A slight movement of the ice round
the ship caused the rudder to become dangerously jammed on the 21st,
and we had to cut away the ice with ice-chisels, heavy pieces of iron
with 6-ft. wooden hafts. We kept steam up in readiness for a move if
the opportunity offered, and the engines running full speed ahead
helped to clear the rudder. Land was in sight to the east and south
about sixteen miles distant on the 22nd. The land-ice seemed to be
faced with ice-cliffs at most points, but here and there slopes ran
down to sea-level. Large crevassed areas in terraces parallel with the
coast showed where the ice was moving down over foot-hills. The inland
ice appeared for the most part to be undulating, smooth, and easy to
march over, but many crevasses might have been concealed from us by the
surface snow or by the absence of shadows. I thought that the land
probably rose to a height of 5000 ft. forty or fifty miles inland. The
accurate estimation of heights and distances in the Antarctic is always
difficult, owing to the clear air, the confusing monotony of colouring,
and the deceptive effect of mirage and refraction. The land appeared to
increase in height to the southward, where we saw a line of land or
barrier that must have been seventy miles, and possibly was even more
distant.

Sunday, January 24, was a clear sunny day, with gentle easterly and
southerly breezes. No open water could be seen from the mast-head, but
there was a slight water-sky to the west and north-west. "This is the
first time for ten days that the wind has varied from north-east and
east, and on five of these days it has risen to a gale. Evidently the
ice has become firmly packed in this quarter, and we must wait
patiently till a southerly gale occurs or currents open the ice. We