Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/404

1841 it again fell, as rapidly as it had risen, until at noon March 15.the following day it had reached 28.8 inches. We had so often before this time experienced such sudden oscillations of the barometer, that we were in consequence prepared to expect the sudden and violent squall which, however, came on so furiously as hardly to afford us sufficient time to close reef our top-sails, and furl all the other sails. It was of only four or five hours' duration, and had the good effect of driving off the fog. We had for several days seen only a very few bergs; a circumstance that surprised us greatly, as great numbers were met with in these parts by the American expedition during the preceding summer. They must have either been destroyed by the violence of the winter storms, or drifted away to the northward without their places having been supplied by others from the southern lands. It was a comfortable circumstance for us, and rendered the service less hazardous and anxious than it otherwise would have been, for had we found them here in any considerable numbers during the long dark nights that now prevailed, with a constant succession of storms and foggy weather, it would have been utterly impracticable to have persevered in the navigation, and have obliged us to relinquish our present object. We made sail as the wind gradually abated; but it had raised a high, short, irregular sea, in which the ships rolled and pitched uneasily: with difficulty we kept their heads in the right direction until 8 p.m., when it fell perfectly calm, and the