July 25, Ashore on ice.

July 25—The wind does not hold steady for long in these waters and we are making poor progress. We lie about sixty miles south of Cape York and can go no farther until a favourable wind comes to push us across the bay. It is frustrating as the season is moving on, however, we are making good use of the time. 

This morning we got under the lee of a huge berg and made fast with the ice anchors. It was an undertaking I did not relish since, at Disco, I had witnessed one about 200 feet high topple over and come down with a crash like an avalanche, but in fact this berg seems as solid as if it were rock anchored to the sea bed. It is a large, irregular mountain of ice, upwards of 150 feet high and some 600 feet across. The ice, where it is shewing on a vertical face, is a deep blue, like thick coloured glass in some places. But the surface is not smooth and the ground is quite easy to walk on, being rough and a dull opaque white. There is a wave-cut ledge on the lee side which makes a perfect jetty for us. We have gone ‘ashore’ and set up a magnetic observatory some distance from the ships. As I told you in my letters from Disco, Sir John has especially charged me with the magnetic observations, and this is a splendid opportunity to collect readings where no one has previously done so. It is exciting work but I cannot but hope we are not delayed too long.