With This, We Stood To The North,
At Which Time We Were In The Latitude Of 60 Deg.
44' S., and longitude 116 deg.
50'
E. The latitude was determined by the meridian altitude of the sun, which
appeared, now and then, for a few minutes, till three in the afternoon.
Indeed the sky was, in general, so cloudy, and the weather so thick and
hazy, that we had very little benefit of sun or moon; very seldom seeing
the face of either the one or the other. And yet, even under these
circumstances, the weather, for some days past, could not be called very
cold. It, however, had not the least pretension to be called summer
weather, according to my ideas of summer in the northern hemisphere, as far
as 60 deg. of latitude, which is nearly as far north as I have been.
In the evening we had three islands of ice in sight, all of them large;
especially one, which was larger than any we had yet seen. The side opposed
to us seemed to be a mile in extent; if so, it could not be less than three
in circuit. As we passed it in the night, a continual cracking was heard,
occasioned, no doubt, by pieces breaking from it.[4] For, in the morning of
the 6th, the sea, for some distance round it, was covered with large and
small pieces; and the island itself did not appear so large as it had done
the evening before. It could not be less than 100 feet high; yet such was
the impetuous force and height of the waves which were broken against it,
by meeting with such a sudden resistance, that they rose considerably
higher. In the evening we were in latitude of 59 deg. 58' S., longitude 118 deg.
39' E. The 7th, the wind was variable in the N.E. and S.E. quarters,
attended with snow and sleet till the evening. Then the weather became
fair, the sky cleared up, and the night was remarkably pleasant, as well as
the morning of the next day; which, for the brightness of the sky, and
serenity and mildness of the weather, gave place to none we had seen since
we left the Cape of Good Hope. It was such as is little known in this sea;
and to make it still more agreeable, we had not one island of ice in sight.
The mercury in the thermometer rose to 40. Mr Wales and the master made
some observations of the moon and stars, which satisfied us, that, when our
latitude was 59 deg. 44', our longitude was 121 deg. 9'. At three o'clock in the
afternoon, the calm was succeeded by a breeze at S.E. The sky, at the same
time, was suddenly obscured, and seemed to presage an approaching storm,
which accordingly happened. For, in the evening, the wind shifted to south,
blew in squalls, attended with sleet and rain, and a prodigious high sea.
Having nothing to take care of but ourselves, we kept two or three points
from the wind, and run at a good rate to the E.N.E. under our two courses,
and close-reefed topsails.
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