28 RESOLUTION ISLAND. 



snow on the summits and sides of the coast, 

 which about 11a. m. was refracted into the most 

 eccentric outlines, some not unlike the form of 

 a pagoda. The latitude to-day was 60° 17 N. 

 and longitude by chronometer 6l°57' W., from 

 which we learnt that we had been set by the cur- 

 rent no less than forty-one miles south in the 

 space of two days. Our distance from Resolution 

 Island, at noon, was sixty-nine miles. 



Towards evening the wind dropped, and we 

 bent our cables to be in readiness, in case we 

 should be carried into situations where it might 

 be necessary to seek an anchorage. A thin ice 

 formed during the night, and, on the 31st, the 

 pack seemed to have gathered more closely 

 around us. The day, however, was beautifully 

 calm, and a boat was sent to procure fresh water 

 from the pools formed on the surface of the 

 larger masses of ice. A light breeze soon after- 

 wards sprung up, which, though scarcely raising 

 a ripple on the water, kept the sails full aloft, 

 and carried us gently onward at the rate of two 

 knots. The nearer view now afforded us of the 

 land presented nothing attractive. Peaked and 

 splintered hills, resting on a sort of shelf or 

 ledge, which again broke off perpendicularly 

 into dark cliffs raised upon shelving banks covered 

 with snow *, and farther off, though still, as it 



