The Ocean About Us Had A Furious Aspect, And Seemed Incensed At The Presumption Of A Few Intruding Mortals.

A gloomy melancholy air loured on the brows of our shipmates, and a dreadful silence reigned amongst us.

Salt meat, our constant diet, was become loathsome to all, and even to those who had been bred to a nautical life from their tender years: The hour of dinner was hateful to us, for the well known smell of the victuals had no sooner reached our nose, than we found it impossible to partake of them with a hearty appetite. In short, we rather vegetated than lived; we withered, and became indifferent to all that animates the soul at other times. We sacrificed our health, our feelings, our enjoyments, to the honour of pursuing a track unattempted before. The crew were as much distressed as the officers, from another cause. Their biscuit, which had been sorted at New Zealand, baked over again, and then packed up, was now in the same decayed state as before. This was owing partly to the revisal, which had been so rigorous, that many bad biscuit was preserved among those that were eatable; and partly to the neglect of the casks, which had not been sufficiently fumigated and dried. Of this rotten bread the people only received two-thirds of their usual allowance, from economical principles; but as that portion is hardly sufficient, supposing it to be all eatable, it was far from being so when nearly one half of it was rotten. However, they continued in that distressful situation till this day, when the first mate came to the capstern and complained most bitterly that he and the people had not wherewith to satisfy the cravings of the stomach, producing, at the same time, the rotten and stinking remains of his biscuit. Upon this, the crew were put to full allowance. The captain seemed to recover again as we advanced to the southward, but all those who were afflicted with rheumatisms, continued as much indisposed as ever." - G.F.

[12] "The thermometer here was 32 deg., and a great many penguins were heard croaking around us, but could not be seen, on account of the foggy weather which immediately succeeded. As often as we had hitherto penetrated to the southward, we had met with no land, but been stopped sooner or later by a solid ice-field, which extended before us as far as we could see: At the same time we had always found the winds moderate and frequently easterly in these high latitudes, in the same manner as they are said to be in the northern frozen zone. From these circumstances, my father had been led to suppose, that all the south pole, to the distance of 20 degrees, more or less, is covered with solid ice, of which only the extremities are annually broken off by storms, consumed by the action of the sun, and regenerated in winter. This opinion is the less exceptionable, since there seems to be no absolute necessity for the existence of land towards the formation of ice, and because we have little reason to suppose that there actually is any land of considerable extent in the frigid zone." - G.F.

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