1775- allured it could only be an iftand; and it was of no confe-
^rebruary.^ ^uence §ge we f ell in with. In the evening, Mr.
Saturday 18, -yya]es ma(]e feveral obfervations of the moon, and ftars Re-
gulus and Spica ; the mean refults, at four o’clock when the
obfervations were made, for finding the time by the watch,,
gave 90 15' 20" Eaft longitude. The watch at the fame rime
gave 90 36' 45". Soon after the variation was found to be tjjE
10' Weft. It is nearly in this flotation that Mr.,Bouvet had i°
Eaft. I cannot fuppofe that the variation has altered fo much
' fince that time; but rather think he had made fome miftake
in his obfervations. That there could be none in ours was
certain, from the uniformity for fome time paft. Befides, we
found i3° 8' Weft, variation, nearly under this meridian; in
January 1773. During the night the wind veered round by
the N. W. to N. N. E., and blew a frefh gale.
Sunday 19. At eight in the morning of the 19th, we faw the appearance
of land in the diredtion of E. by S., or that of our courfe;
but it proved a mere fog-bank, and foon after difperfed.
We continued to fteer E. by S. and S. E., till feven o’clock in
the evening, when, being in the latitude of 54s 43' S., longitude
130 3' Eaft, and the wind having veered to N. E., we
tacked and flood to N. W. under clofe-reefed top-fails and
courfes.; having a very ftrong gale attended with fnow-
fhowers.
Monday so A t fdur o’clock next morning, being in the latitude of 540
30' S., longitude 120 33' Eaft, we tacked and ftretched to
N. E. with a frefh gale at S. W., attended with fnow-fhowers
and fleet. At noon, being in the latitude of 540 8' S., longitude
120 59' E., with a frefh gale at W. by N., and tolerably
clear weather, w^ fleered Eaft till ten o’clock in the evening,
y* ' 9 when
when we brought to,, left we might pafs any land in the
night, of which we however had not the leaft fig ns. <— -,----'
At day-break, having made fail, we bore away Eaft, and Tvrdayzi.
at noon obferved in latitude 54° 16'S., longitude 160 13'Eaft,
which is 50 to the Eaft of the longitude in which Cape Cir-
cumcifion is faid to lie ; fo that we began to think there was
no fuch land in evidence. I however continued to .fleer Eaft,
inclining a little to the South, till four o’clock in the afternoon.
of the next daÿ, when we were in latitude 54? 24' S.„ WedacCa*»
longitude 190 18' Eaft.
We had now run down thirteen degrees of longitude, in
the very latitude affigned for Bouvet’s Land. I was therefore
well a fibred that what he had feen could be nothing but
an ifland of ice ; for, if it had. been land, it is hardly poflible we
could have miffed it, though it were ever fo fmall. Befides,.
from the time of leaving the fouthern lands, We had not met. I
with the leaft figns of any other. But even fuppofe we had,
it would have been no proof of the exiftence of Cape Cir-
cu'mcifion; for I am well allured that neither feals, nor penguins,
nor any o f the oceanic birds, are indubitable figns of
the vicinity of land. I will allow that they are found on the -
coafts of all thefe fouthern lands ; but are they not alfo to be-
found in all parts of the fouthern océan ? There are, however,,
fome oceanic oraquatic birds which point out the vicinity of
lands; efpecially fliags, which feldom go out of fight o f it j-
and gannets, boobies, and men of war birds, 1 believe, feldorru
go very far out to fea.
As we were.now no more than two degrees of longitude-
from our route to the South, when we left the Cape of Good!
Hope, it was to no purpofe to proceed any farther to the Eaftunder