We stood on in this way until 11 a.m., when, to my horror, the wind started to veer with every squall till I drew quite close to the southern barrier, having the extreme point a little on my lee bow. I felt sure we must go ashore without a chance of saving ourselves. Just about 11.30 the wind shifted to S.W. with a strong squall, so we squared away to the N.W. and came past the same bergs as we had seen at daybreak, the largest being about 1000 feet high, anvil shaped. At 2 p.m. we got on the N.W. side of the northern arm of the horseshoe shaped mass. It then reached from 4 points on my lee bow to as far as could be seen astern in one unbroken line. A fact worthy of note was that at least 50 of the bergs in the bay were perfectly black, which was to be accounted for by the temperature of the water, being 51°, which had turned many over. I also think that had there been even the smallest outlet at the eastern side of this mass, the water between the barriers would not have been so thickly strewn with bergs, as the prevailing westerly gales would have driven them through and separated them. I have frequently seen ice down south, but never anything like even the smaller bergs in this group. I also had precisely the same experience with regard to the temperature of water on our homeward passage in the _Derwent_ three years ago, as we dipped up a bucket of water within half a mile of a huge berg and found no change in the temperature. _Cromdale_, _Strathdon_, _County of Edinburgh_ and _Curzon_, all sighted this stupendous ice barrier, and _Loch Torridon_ when she spoke the _Strathdon_ was on the extreme eastern end in about 25° W., whilst the _Cromdale_ cleared it at the extreme western end, giving the length of the barrier from east to west about 12 degrees of longitude. In the following year _Loch Torridon_, _Cutty Sark_, _Turakina_, _Brier Holme_ and _Charles Racine_ fell in with an equally huge field of ice, about 6 degrees of latitude further south and stretching from 52° W. to 43° W. That the two fields were the same lot of ice it is very difficult to say for certain, but it is more likely that they were quite separate from each other. Here is _Loch Torridon’s_ account of the 1893 ice as given to the _Shipping Gazette_:— _Loch Torridon_ reports that on 17th January, 1893, in lat. 52° 50′ S., long. 46° W., she sighted two large icebergs to the eastward. On the 19th in 50° 50′ S., 46° W., she passed between numerous immense bergs, ranging in size from ¼ to 3 miles in length, and from 500 to 1000 feet high. At 3.30 p.m. on same date she saw an immense continent of ice ahead with apparently no open water. Passing to the eastward she had the south end abeam at 4 p.m. and the north end at 9.30 a.m. As the ship had been sailing 9 knots an hour during this time, steering a N. 11° E. course, this would give the length, north and south, of this mass to be about 50 miles.