probably from our expectation of seeing land, many false reports of it were made from the masthead: dense clouds arose in the evening to the eastward, whose strongly marked outline assumed the appearance of land, and were the cause of these frequent mistakes.
Favoured by a strong breeze from the S.W., we Dec. 9.made good progress during the next two days, and by noon on the 9th we had reached the latitude of 52º 32′ S. and longitude 161º 20′ W. The magnetic dip had increased to 70º S., and the variation was 15º 10′ E. The breeze increased to a strong gale soon after noon, with rain and occasional snow squalls, which reduced the temperature of the air from 42º to 34º during their continuance, the barometer falling quickly to 29.1 inches at midnight. It was a severe night, and felt more so by us from the suddenness of the change of both the temperature and weather. As we had no apprehension of meeting ice in so low a latitude, we pursued our course before the gale, although the snow fell so thickly at times, that we could not see more than a quarter of a mile before us.
The gale which continued throughout the next Dec. 10.day, shifted to the south-eastward in the afternoon, and reduced us to close-reefed topsails; the change of wind brought clear weather, but prevented our getting so near to the Nimrod Islands as I wished. At noon we were in lat. 53º S. and long. 157º 49′ W.; the islands, therefore, bore S. 6º W., 212 miles from us, which was the nearest approach to them we