middle- only ten, and the smallest not more than five gallons of oil, their skins also being of but little value, it would not prove a very profitable speculation unless a place could be found where they congregate together in far greater numbers. The whales which we saw here, though of large size, were by no means so numerous as we found them in other parts of the antarctic regions.
In the forenoon, the wind falling light and theJan. 11. hole of water in which we had been working having become too small for us to sail about in any longer, we made the ships fast to the largest piece of ice we could find, mooring it between them. As the wind prevailed from the southward, the whole body of the pack still drifted to the northward as we could perceive by the larger bergs, which, not being so easily affected by the wind, moved at a much slower pace. Cape pigeons and white petrels were the only birds we saw to-day, except a flock of tern flying to the southwestward.
Early in the morning we observed the ice opening,Jan. 12. so we cast off, and, aided by a light southeasterly wind, made way to the south-westward, in which direction we rejoiced to observe the sky much darker than we had before seen it, and which we believed to be hanging over a large space of water. At noon we were in lat. 65º 54′ S., long. 156º 30′ W. Our boats were kept ahead, towing through the openings in the ice, and preventing the ships striking against the heavier pieces of