latitude in which the ice had been met with by former navigators,—at any rate, I thought it better to attain the eastern point of the great southern barrier, at which our operations last year had been interrupted by the setting in of the winter, by a route as widely different as practicable from that by which we had before approached it; and thus enlarge the boundary of our examination of those regions.
Dec. 17.We passed only a few icebergs during the night, but many very heavy loose pieces, doubtless fragments of broken-up bergs, sufficiently large to destroy any ordinary ship that might strike against them, at the rate we were sailing; the fog had, however, in some degree cleared away, and having no difficulty in avoiding them, we had a fine run. The snow showers which followed in the morning were only of short continuance, and during the longer intervals of clear weather, we could see to a great distance from the mast-head.
At noon we were in lat. 61º 3′ S., long. 146º 3′ W. We had, therefore, passed beyond the track of the Russian navigator, Bellinghausen, upon this meridian, and were fast approaching that of Cook, in 1774.
Some whales, numerous gray petrel, and Cape pigeons were seen. At 5 p.m. a strong iceblink appeared in the sky to the S.E.; the temperature of the sea also falling to 29º at midnight, gave notice of our approach to a large body of ice: and at three o'clock the following morning the