J77*>
December.
Monday 14,
the 14th) acquainted thé captain that he plainly faw the
land. This news foon brought us all upon deck : We faw
an immenfe field of flat ice before us, broken into many
fmall pieces on the edges, a vaft number of iflands of ice
of all lhapes and fizes rofe beyond it as far as the eye
could reach, and fome of the moft diftant confiderably-
raifed by the hazy vapours which lay on the horizon,,
had indeed fome appearance of mountains. Several o f
our officers perfifted in the opinion that they had feen land;
here,, till Captain Cook, about two years and two months^
afterwards (in February 1 77 $•) on his coùrfé from Cape
Horn towards the Cape of Good Hope, failed over the fame-
fpot, where they had fuppofed it to lie, and found neither
land nor even ice there at that time. Numbers of pin-
guins, pintadas, fulmars, fnowy and blue petrels* attended
this vaft extent of ice, and différent fpecies of ceta*
ceous animals fpouted up the water around us: two of
them,, fliorter than other whales, were particularly noticed,,
in refpe<5t of their bulk and of a white or: rather flefhy
colour.. A great degree of cold in thefe icy regions em
tirely precluded the idea of a fummer, which we had ex—
pefted at this time o f the year ; our thermometer flood âtî
31° in the morning; and did not rife beyond 33° at noonj
though the latitude we obferved this day was only s 4 SS"
fouth. We paffed through quantities of broken ice in the
* Aptenodytes antar&ica; Procellariacapenfis,.glacialis, nivea, & vittata.
afternoon,
afternoon, and faw another extenfive ice-field, beyond
which feveral of our people ftill perfifted in, taking fog-
banks for land. It fnowed a good deal during night, and
in the morning it was almoft calm, but very foggy. A
boat was hoifted out to try the direction of the current.
Mr. Wales the aftronomer, and my father, took this opportunity
to repeat the experiments on the temperature
o f the fea at a certain depth. The fog encreafed fo
much while they were thus engaged, that they entirely
loft fight of both the fhips. Their fituation
in a fmall four-oared boat, on an immenfe ocean, far
from any inhabitable fhore, furrounded with ice, and utterly
deftitute of provifions, was truly terrifying and horrible
in its confequences. They rowed about for fome
time, making vain efforts to be heard, but all was filent
about them, and they could not fee the length of their
boat. They were the more unfortunate, as they had neither
maft nor fail, and only tyvo oars. In this dreadful
fufpence they determined to lie ftill, hoping that, provided
■ they preferved their place, the Hoops would not drive out
of fight, as it was calm. At laft they heard the jingling
of a bell at a diftance; this found was heavenly mufic to
their ears; they immediately rowed towards it, and by
continual hailing, were at laft anfwered from the Adventure,
and hurried on board, overjoyed to have efcaped the danger
° 3 o f