210 COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE FEB. 



o'clock in the morning of the 3d, was succeeded by 

 a calm that continued till eight, when we got the 

 wind at E. by $., attended with hazy weather. At 

 this time we saw the land we were looking for, and 

 which proved to be two isles. The day on which 

 they were discovered, was the occasion of calling 

 them Candlemas isles ; latitude 57° 1 Y S., longitude 

 27° 6' W. They are of no great extent, but of con- 

 siderable height, and were covered with snow. A 

 small rock was seen between them, and perhaps there 

 may be more ; for the weather was so hazy that we 

 soon lost sight of the islands, and did not see them 

 again till noon, at which time they bore W., distant 

 three or four leagues. 



As the wind kept veering to the S. we were obliged 

 to stand to the N. E., in which route we met with 

 several large ice-islands, loose ice, and many pen- 

 guins ; and, at midnight, came at once into water 

 uncommonly white, which alarmed the officer of the 

 watch so much that he tacked the ship instantly. 

 Some thought it was a float of ice, others that it was 

 shallow water ; but as it proved neither, probably it 

 was a shoal offish. 



We stood to the south till two o'clock next morn- 

 ing, when we resumed our course to the E., with a 

 faint breeze at S. S. E., which having ended in a calm, 

 at six, I took the opportunity of putting a boat in 

 the water to try if there were any current ; and the 

 trial proved there was none. Some whales were 

 playing about us, and abundance of penguins ; a few 

 of the latter were shot, and they proved to be of the 

 same sort that we had seen among the ice before, and 

 different both from those on Staten Land, and from 

 those at the isle of Georgia. It is remarkable, that 

 we had not seen a seal since we left that coast. At 

 n we were in the latitude of 56° 44/ S., longitude 

 25° 33' W. At this time we got a breeze at E., 

 with which we stood to the S., with a view of gaining 

 the coast we had left ; but at eight o'clock the wind 



