We remained shut up in this hole of water the whole of the next day, without being able toJan. 14. perceive the smallest change in the ice, which would admit of our advancing to the southward; there was considerable motion amongst it, and we observed by the bergs that the whole body was drifting to the northward. We were visited by the various kinds of birds I have so often enumerated; and, in addition to those, a stormy and three dusky petrels were seen, as was also an individual of the gigantic kind, entirely white, and at first mistaken for a new bird.
The hole in which we were confined becomingJan. 15. too small, being not more than half a mile in diameter, for our ships to keep under sail in, without the probability of their coming into collision, rendered it necessary to make fast to a large floe piece we found convenient for our purpose, and during the day we employed our people filling the empty water tanks with ice, and other useful operations.
The pack remained perfectly close in every direction,Jan. 16. without the smallest hole of water to be seen amongst it; but still the dark water sky to the southward remained in encouraging strength, As the wind was blowing from the southward, we drifted back with the pack to the northward, and at noon we were in latitude 65º 48′ S., and longitude 157º 36′ W. All the circumstances being favourable for the purpose, I went on the ice to make magnetic observations in the evening, chiefly with the view of ascertaining whether the