314 J| NOTES ON THE BOTANY 
for these beautiful birds are never seen away from the imme- 
diate edge of the Pack ; and the ships accordingly fell in with 
it the same night. First passing through some heavy streams 
of ice, they made the Pack, running east and west, very heavy 
and formed of large pieces of rotten ice. Many bergs were 
floating about, apparently quite out of their element (if such 
an expression is allowable), for they were much broken up, 
and partially melted, looking very different, indeed, from the 
huge, hard, tubular masses which the navigators had been 
accustomed, during their two previous cruizes, to meet with. 
The fogs continued so dense, that, though the surf was heard 
dashing over the ice, and thus apprizing the voyagers of the 
proximity of danger, it was impossible to see anything. On 
the 28th, the icy hills of Palmer’s and Louis Philippe’s 
Islands were announced by the increasing coldness and clear- 
ness of the air, and several large barrier bergs, and much 
loose ice, floated in all directions. Many birds, large Finner 
Whales, and shoals of a smaller species, speckled black and 
White, were observed; and what deeply interested the bota- 
nist, as occurring in such a high southern latitude, the ships 
passed two much battered patches of Sea-weed, apparently 
belonging to the genus Macrocystis, but which it was im- 
practicable to pick up. The land came in sight that evening. 
It is described as consisting of low hills, nearly covered with 
snow, with several islands lying off it, and terminating to the 
northward in a bluff, which is both further to the southward 
and eastward than the Pointe Francaise of D’Urville. 
The aspect is by no means fine or imposing, the land being 
low and of a rounded outline, apparently but a few hundred 
feet high, partially bare of snow, and presenting huge gla- 
ciers here and there. Icebergs were very numerous, often 
blocking up the view of the horizon, and the sea was full of 
loose ice, much of which was stained brown, with those 
infusorial and confervoid remains, found abundantly by former 
navigators. 
Many seals and penguins frequented the ice in this place, 
and the “ Terror,” passing several islets on the coast, was 
