5b cook's second voyage jan. 



froze on our rigging as it fell, so that every rope 

 was covered with the finest transparent ice I ever 

 saw. This afforded an agreeable sight enough to 

 the eye, but conveyed to the mind an idea of cold- 

 ness, much greater than it really was ; for the 

 weather was rather milder than it had been for some 

 time past, and the sea less encumbered with ice. 

 But the worst was, the ice so clogged the rigging, 

 sails, and blocks, as to make them exceedingly bad to 

 handle. Our people however surmounted those dif- 

 ficulties with a steady perseverance, and withstood 

 this intense cold much better than I expected. 



We continued to steer to the E. S. E. with a fresh 

 gale at N. W. attended with snow and sleet, till the 

 8th, when we were in the latitude of 61 12' south, 

 longitude 31 47' east. In the afternoon we passed 

 more ice islands than we had seen for several days. 

 Indeed they were now so familiar to us, that they 

 were often passed unnoticed, but more generally un- 

 seen on account of the thick weather. At nine 

 o'clock in the evening, we came to one which had 

 a quantity of loose ice about it. As the wind was 

 moderate, and the weather tolerably fair, we short- 

 ened sail, and stood on and off, with a view of taking 

 some on board on the return of light ; but at four 

 o'clock in the morning, finding ourselves to leeward 

 of this ice, we bore down to an island to leeward of us, 

 there being about it some loose ice, part of which we 

 saw break off. There we brought to, hoisted out three 

 boats, and in about five or six hours, took up as much 

 ice as yielded fifteen tons of good fresh water. The 

 pieces we took up were hard, and solid as a rock, 

 some of them were so large, that we were obliged to 

 break them with pick-axes, before they could be 

 taken into the boats. 



The salt water which adhered to the ice, was so 

 trifling as not to be tasted, and after it had lain on 

 deck a short time, entirely drained off; and the 

 water which the ice yielded, was perfectly sweet and 

 well-tasted. Part of the ice we broke in pieces, and 



