noon placed us in latitude 66° 32′ S., longitude 156° 28′ W., we therefore crossed the Antarctic circle this season on the same day that we did last year, and forty degrees of longitude, or about fourteen hundred miles to the eastward.
A complete suit of warm clothing was issued to our crews, as a new year's gift, and the customary double allowance of provisions and spirits was served out to them. As the state of the ice prevented our making any attempt to proceed, we remained moored to the large floe piece we had hold of, and the day was spent by our people in the enjoyment of various amusing games on the ice, which their ingenuity invented, and which was finally wound up by a grand fancy ball, of a novel and original character, in which all the officers bore a part, and added much to the merriment and fun which all seemed greatly to enjoy; indeed, if our friends in England could have witnessed the scene, they would have thought, what I am sure was truly the case, that we were a very happy party.
The pack continued so close, that we could make no way through it; but found by our observations we had been carried a few miles to the southward on the second, and again back to the northward,Jan. 3. and to-day at noon our latitude was 66° 34′ S., and longitude 156° 22′ W. The temperature of the sea was found to be 39.6° at one thousand and fifty fathoms, whilst at the surface it was only 28°. It was also tried at intermediate depths, at intervals