208
RUNNING TO THE NORTHWARD.
[Chap. VII.
1842
the medical officers, and at this time there was not a single individual complaining in either ship.
Feb. 28.Keeping at a distance of between three and four miles from the pack edge, we continued our course to the northward, and at noon were in latitude 70º 54′ S., and longitude 175º 36′ W. During the last few days the white and blue petrel were seen in great numbers. Cape pigeons, sooty albatross, and gigantic petrel less numerously; some penguins also were occasionally seen, and their cry more frequently heard. Seals were comparatively few, but the small fin-backed whale, as also the piebald kind, were numerous along the pack edge.
At 4 p.m., we observed an extensive chain of bergs so close together that we could see no way through them, and were therefore obliged to haul to the south-westward; nor was it until near midnight, when we had run along the chain between thirty and forty miles, that we cleared its western extreme and were enabled to resume our course. Three of them were much marked with patches of rock and soil, and some of them of the flat-topped barrier form must have been in violent collision with each other, judging from the immense fragments upon their summits. The night was beautifully clear, the stars bright, and the moon afforded us considerable light. The Aurora Australis was seen forming into concentric