116 PROGRESS TOWARDS 



1824. same principle as the vane of a weather-cock, 

 Sept. and being thus influenced. 



Towards noon, light snow began falling, and 

 continued for three or four hours, yet we ob- 

 tained a meridian altitude and sights, and the 

 weather was calm until three P.M., when a light 

 breeze sprang up from n.n.e., but soon veered 

 to N.N.w. The soundings at noon were eighty, 

 but they gradually decreased until nine P.M. 

 to forty fathoms, although we had steered 

 south-west about eleven miles ; at thirty mi- 

 nutes after nine we had forty-eight fathoms. 

 We had hitherto kept south-west, in order to 

 deepen the soundings, as, from the recent dis- 

 covery of " Tom's Island" and the shoalness 

 of the water while seventy miles from any 

 known land, there was reason to fear we 

 might meet with other low islands. We 

 now kept s.s.w. until midnight, with the wind 

 from the northward, but finding that we had 

 not yet above forty -four fathoms, it was to be 



