177^. HOUND THE WORLD. 53 



indication of its vicinity. This opinion may hold 

 good where there are no ice islands ; but where such 

 are, these birds, as well as many others which usually 

 keep near the shores, finding a roosting-place upon 

 these islands, may be brought by them a great distance 

 from any land. It will however be said, that they 

 must go on shore to breed ; that probably the fe- 

 males were there, and that these were only the males 

 which we saw. Be this as it may, I shall continue 

 to take notice of these birds whenever we see them, 

 and leave every one to judge for himself. 



We continued our course to the westward, with a 

 gentle gale at E. N. E. the weather being some- 

 times tolerably clear, and at other times thick and 

 hazy, with snow. The thermometer for a few days 

 past was from .31 to 36, At nine o'clock the next 

 morning, being the 30th, we shot one of the white 

 birds ; upon which we lowered a boat into the water 

 to take it up, and by that means killed a penguin 

 which weighed 11^ pounds. The white bird was of 

 the peterel tribe ; the bill, which is rather short, is of 

 a colour between black and dark blue, and their legs 

 and feet are blue. I believe them to be the same 

 sort of birds that Bouvet mentions to have seen, when 

 he was off Cape Circumcision. 



We continued our westerly course till eight o'clock 

 in the evening, when we steered N. W., the point on 

 which I reckoned the above mentioned Cape to bear. 



At mid-night we fell in with loose ice, which soon 

 after obliged us to tack, and stretch to the southward. 

 At half an hour past two o'clock in the morning of 

 the 31st, we stood for it again, thinking to take some 

 on board ; but this was found impracticable. For 

 the wind, which had been at N. E., now veered to S. E., 

 and increasing to a fresh gale, brought with it such 

 a sea as made it very dangerous for the ships to remain 

 among the ice. The danger was yet farther increased, 

 by discovering an immense field to the north, ex- 

 tending from N. E. by E. to S. W. by W. farther than 



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