and sometimes in the course of this examination, when having during thick snowy weather got into some of the deeper indentations of the pack, we were compelled to run back to the eastward. A halo was seen round the sun at 9 15 a.m. with a parhelion on each side, at a distance of 23° 16′, the altitude of the sun's centre being 24° 30′.
At noon in lat. 64° 39′ S., long. 162° 47′ E., we had no soundings with six hundred fathoms of line; the temperature of the sea was taken at that and several intermediate depths below the surface, as was also the specific gravity of the water brought up from those depths.
In the afternoon the wind veered to the northward, and the snow which had been falling at times during the day was by the immediate increase of temperature turned into rain; to us a very agreeable indication of our having reached a milder climate.
As our proximity to the pack prevented our making any progress to the westward with a northerly wind, I took advantage of the opportunity of stretching to the eastward; as by this measure we not only extended our researches for land, but got into a space more free from bergs and loose ice, and therefore during the continuance of such unfavourable weather were in a situation of comparative safety.
March 9.By noon the next day we were in lat. 64° 20′ S., and long. 164° 20′ E., and therefore about seventy miles north of the land laid down by Lieutenant Wilkes, and not far from the spot from which he