the last twenty-four hours, our latitude being 76º 41′ S. and longitude 173º 48′ W., the magnetic dip 86º 38′ S., and the variation 82º 35′ E. At 2 p.m. we sounded in two hundred and fifty fathoms, when a quantity of green-coloured mud was brought up in the deep sea clamms; although we had run seventy miles directly towards the ice-blink that was observed the preceding evening, no pack was to be seen before dark, but the temperature of the air falling to 16º at midnight, we proceeded under moderate sail during the night.
The wind blew a gale early next morning,Feb. 20. and a heavy sea got up. Coming directly from the great southern barrier, it was piercingly cold, the thermometer at noon standing at 19º. Still, however, no ice was to be seen, except only a few fragments of bergs, although we were thirty miles to the eastward of the spot from which we were compelled to retreat last year; it being then covered with a dense pack, and the temperature of the air being at 12º, the young ice formed so rapidly that we had considerable difficulty in extricating the ships from it, another proof of the mildness of this season as compared with that of last year.
The southerly gale continued to blow withFeb. 21. violence during the whole of the next day, and with the thermometer at 19º the waves, which broke over the ships, froze as they fell on the decks and rigging; by this means a heavy weight of ice accumulated about the hull and ropes