barred progress in every direction.  Attempts were made to work the ship by trimming sails and warping with ice-anchors, but she could not be manoeuvred smartly enough to take advantage of leads that opened and closed.  This state of affairs continued throughout the 16th.  That night a heavy swell was rolling under the ice and the ship had a rough time.  One pointed floe ten or twelve feet thick was steadily battering, with a three-feet send, against the starboard side, and fenders only partially deadened the shock.  “It is no use butting against this pack with steam-power,” wrote Stenhouse.  “We would use all our meagre supply of coal in reaching the limit of the ice in sight, and then we would be in a hole, with neither ballast nor fuel....  But if this stagnation lasts another week we will have to raise steam and consume our coal in an endeavour to get into navigable waters.  I am afraid our chances of getting south are very small now.”

The pack remained close, and on the 21st a heavy swell made the situation dangerous.  The ship bumped heavily that night and fenders were of little avail.  With each “send” of the swell the ship would bang her bows on the floe ahead, then bounce back and smash into another floe across her stern-post.  This floe, about six feet thick and 100 ft. across, was eventually split and smashed by the impacts.  The pack was jammed close on the 23rd, when the noon latitude was 64° 36½´ S. The next change was for the worse.  The pack loosened on the night of the 25th, and a heavy north-west swell caused the ship to bump heavily.  This state of affairs recurred at intervals in succeeding days.  “The battering and ramming of the floes increased in the early hours [of February 29] until it seemed as if some sharp floe or jagged underfoot must go through the ship’s hull.  At 6 a.m. we converted a large coir-spring into a fender, and slipped it under the port quarter, where a pressured floe with twenty to thirty feet underfoot was threatening try knock the propeller and stern-post off altogether.  At 9 a.m., after pumping ship, the engineer reported a leak in the way of the propeller-shaft aft near the stern-post on the port side.  The carpenter cut part of the lining and filled the space between the timbers with Stockholm tar, cement, and oakum.  He could not get at the actual leak, but his makeshift made a little difference.  I am anxious about the propeller.  This pack is a dangerous place for a ship now; it seems miraculous that the old Barky still floats.”

The ice opened out a little on March 1.  It was imperative to get the ship out of her dangerous situation quickly; as winter was approaching, and Stenhouse therefore ordered steam to be raised.  Next morning he had the spanker gaff rigged over the stern for use as a temporary rudder while in the heavy pack.  Steam had been raised to working pressure at 5.15 p.m. on the 2nd, and the ‘Aurora’ began to work ahead to the westward.  Progress was