After Clearing
One Danger We Still Had Another To Encounter; The Weather Remained Foggy,
And Many Large Islands Lay In Our Way; So That We Had To Luff For One, And
Bear Up For Another.
One we were very near falling aboard of, and, if it
had happened, this circumstance would never have been
Related.[4] These
difficulties, together with the improbability of finding land farther
south, and the impossibility of exploring it, on account of the ice, if we
should find any, determined me to get more to the north. At the time we
last tacked, we were in the longitude of 159 deg. 20' W., and in the latitude
of 66 deg. 0' S. Several penguins were seen on some of these islands, and a few
antarctic peterels on the wing.
We continued to stand to the north, with a fresh gale at west, attended
with thick snow showers, till eight o'clock in the evening, when the wind
abated, the sky began to clear up, and at six o'clock in the morning of the
16th it fell calm. Four hours after, it was succeeded by a breeze at N.E.
with which we stretched to the S.E., having thick hazy weather, with snow
showers, and all our rigging coated with ice. In the evening, we attempted
to take some up out of the sea, but were obliged to desist; the sea running
too high, and the pieces being so large, that it was dangerous for the boat
to come near them.
The next morning, being the 17th, we succeeded better; for, falling in with
a quantity of loose ice, we hoisted out two boats; and by noon got on board
as much as we could manage. We then made sail for the east, with a gentle
breeze northerly, attended with snow and sleet, which froze to the rigging
as it fell. At this time we were in the latitude of 64 deg. 41' south,
longitude 155 deg. 44' west. The ice we took up proved to be none of the best,
being chiefly composed of frozen snow; on which account it was porous, and
had imbibed a good deal of salt water; but this drained off, after lying a
while on deck, and the water then yielded was fresh. We continued to
stretch to the east, with a piercing cold northerly wind, attended with a
thick fog, snow, and sleet, that decorated all our rigging with icicles. We
were hourly meeting with some of the large ice islands, which, in these
high latitudes, render navigation so very dangerous: At seven in the
evening, falling in with a cluster of them, we narrowly escaped running
aboard of one, and, with difficulty, wore clear of the others. We stood
back to the west till ten o'clock; at which time the fog cleared away, and
we resumed our course to the east. At noon, the next day, we were in the
latitude of 64 deg. 49' S., longitude 149 deg.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 223 of 461
Words from 115418 to 115917
of 239428
