Polar Exploration. William Speirs Bruce

impossible."

      The Challenger, too, had uncomfortable experiences on February 24, 1874, when the late Professor Moseley relates "it blew a gale, with dry drifting snow obscuring the view and rendering it impossible to see for a greater distance than 200 or 300 yards." After having failed to fasten on under the lee of a berg, "either a back current set the ship on to the berg, or the berg itself was drifting towards us with the wind more rapidly than was expected. A collision ensued and the jibboom was forced against the side of the berg and broken, together with some parts of the rigging in connection with it. The end of the jibboom left a starlike mark on the sloping wall of the berg, but had no other effect on the mass. The men who were aloft reefing the topsails, came down the back stays helter-skelter, expecting the top-gallant masts to fall, but no further damage ensued.

      "The weather became worse," continues Moseley; "we were in rather a critical position. We were surrounded by bergs, with the weather so thick with snow that we could not see more than a ship's length, and a heavy gale was blowing. The full power of steam available was employed. Once we had a narrow escape of running into a large berg, passing only just about 100 yards to leeward of it by ​making a stern-board, with all sails aback, and screwing full speed astern at the same time. The deck was covered with frozen powdery snow, and forward was coated with ice from the shipping of seas."

      The following day the Challenger had forty icebergs in sight at noon.

      At the end of March 1903, whilst looking for a harbour in the South Orkneys, we had four anxious days and nights on board the Scotia, navigating amongst bergs in dirty weather, and on the 22nd of March 1903 narrowly escaped shipwreck by collision with an iceberg. The nights at this time were very dark and of full twelve hours' duration, and it was blowing almost continually with fog and driving snow, especially when we came near the land. All day in such weather we would approach the land cautiously, looking in vain to find a safe harbour where the Scotia might winter; and at night, to prevent being driven ashore, we would steam out to sea. To the north of the South Orkneys at this time the sea was clear of pack ice, but it was full of bergs, and the greatest vigilance had to be shown. On the afternoon of Sunday, March the 22nd, while endeavouring to discover Lethewaite Strait, the squalls became exceedingly violent, accompanied by snow and very heavy, blinding drift from the high mountains ​of Coronation Island. Suddenly, there seemed to be a lull in the wind, and the sea became smooth as glass—an ominous sign, for we had assuredly come under the lee of a berg or high land. "Hard-a-port!" was Captain Robertson's swift order, and we swung round, and in doing so there loomed up on the port side the grim icy cliff of a huge berg, which almost grazed our yard-arms. Nothing but the able handling of the ship by my officers and crew, and their long experience of navigating among ice could have saved us from a most deadly collision, if not shipwreck: soon after, as the drift diminished, we sighted another berg to leeward, and a little later, when it cleared, we found we were completely surrounded by bergs.

      Having dealt with Antarctic icebergs, let us now turn our attention to the other forms of ice I have mentioned. Apart from icebergs, all other Antarctic and indeed Polar ice is a product of the sea and not the land.