OF THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE. 323 
amid many very large icebergs, which it required incessant 
caution to avoid. On the 16th, the moon was seen for the 
first time during many months. 
The course was now directed towards the land, laid down 
in the charts as Bouvet’s Island, or Cape Circumcision, dis- 
covered by a French captain, Bouvet, about the middle of the 
last century, and ineffectually sought for by Captain Cook 
himself, and by the ship which separated from him, and was 
commanded by Captain Furneaux. The masters of two of 
Enderby's ships, the ** Swan and Otter,” are said to have seen 
this land in 1808, and they describe it as high, completely 
covered with snow, and unapproachable for many | miles, 
because of the Pack Ice. 
On the 19th, in lat. S. 54° 31;, long. W. 2° 25, a heavy 
southerly gale came on, accompanied with gloomy snow 
showers. Passing among Icebergs, they approached the 
position assigned to Bouvet’s Island; but the thick weather, 
and tremendous surf running, prevented the possibility of 
descrying any thing.- At midnight the “Erebus” passed 
immediately to windward of a large mass of ice, and struck 
against a smaller piece, supposed to be from a berg close by. 
It was afterwards discovered that the “Terror” had come 
suddenly on an iceberg at the same time as the “ Erebus,” 
but happily saw the danger soon enough to bear up, and then. 
ran close to the surf, which was beating over all within a 
half a cable's length of the cliff. The light of the “ Terror” 
had been observed to shoot a-head of the other ship, and i 
though the reason of this manœuvre was not visible, yet it - 
was rightly guessed to proceed from the vicinity of extreme 
peril. To have remained longer in such a situation, with 
the view of seeking for land of but doubtful existence, would. 
have been madness ; and Captain Ross, assured that he must 
have passed close to the position assigned for it, gave orders: 
to bear away for the Cape of Good Hope. The tremendous 
gales before which the Discovery Ships now ran were only 
uncomfortable, for the construction is such, that in open 
