74 COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE FEB. 



last, fixing at E. by S., blew a fresh gale. With this, 

 we stood to the south, till eight o'clock in the even- 

 ing of the 23d ; at which time, we were in the lati- 

 tude 61 52' south, longitude 95 %' east. We now 

 tacked, and spent the night, which was exceedingly 

 stormy, thick, and hazy, with sleet and snow, in 

 making short boards. Surrounded on every side 

 with danger, it was natural for us to wish for day- 

 light : this, when it came, served only to increase 

 our apprehensions, by exhibiting to our view those 

 huge mountains of ice which, in the night, we had 

 passed without seeing. 



These unfavourable circumstances, together with 

 dark nights, at this advanced season of the year, 

 quite discouraged me from putting in execution a 

 resolution I had taken of crossing the Antarctic 

 circle once more. Accordingly, at four o'clock in 

 the morning, we stood to the north, with a very hard 

 gale at E. S. E., accompanied with snow and sleet, 

 and a very high sea, from the same point, which 

 made great destruction among the ice islands. This 

 circumstance, far from being of any advantage to us, 

 greatly increased the number of pieces we had to 

 avoid. The large pieces which break from the ice 

 islands, are much more dangerous than the islands 

 themselves ; the latter are so high out of water, 

 that we can generally see them, unless the weather 

 be very thick and dark, before we are very near 

 them > whereas the others cannot be seen in the 

 night, till they are under the ship's bows. These 

 dangers were, however, now become so familiar to us, 

 that the apprehensions they caused, were never of 

 long duration ; and were, in some measure, com- 

 pensated, both by the seasonable supplies of fresh 

 water these ice islands afforded us, (without which 

 we must have been greatly distressed,) and also, by 

 their very romantic appearance, greatly heightened by 

 the foaming and dashing of the waves into the curious 

 holes and caverns which are formed in many of 



