290 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Mar. 



* Now that we have settled the knotty question as to the 

 geography of these islands, our position seems extremely 

 hopeful. This region to the westward has always been found 

 heavily packed. We are the first to enter it, and to our 

 delight we find an open sea ; it seems as though the pack has 

 been driven to the south-east, into that area which we skirted. 

 The wind has fallen, and we have furled our sails ; a long 

 swell comes from the north-west, showing an absence of ice in 

 that direction. We are standing directly to the west, towards 

 Wilkes Land, and every eye is keenly on the alert for some 

 new development — so keenly, in fact, that twice this after- 

 noon has an excited person rushed up to me to report some 

 imaginary discovery of land in the fantastical cloud forms that 

 fringe our horizon. The night promises to be fine, though the 

 glass is falling. Birds are gathering about us in numbers once 

 more — the commonest to-day is the fulmar petrel ; it looks as 

 though it nested on the islands. Rorqual whales have been 

 spouting in all directions, and altogether signs of life are 

 plentiful and cheering.' 



'■March 3. — Early last night the sky clouded over, and 

 towards the end of the middle watch it began to snow ; by the 

 morning we found ourselves in a thick fog. We had made 

 sail again to a northerly breeze, and at 5.30 a.m. we hove-to in 

 none too pleasant a position, for we could not tell where we 

 were drifting or when some monster iceberg might appear on 

 our lee. At 11 a.m. there was a slight clearance, and we 

 decided to push on, which we have since done, though every 

 now and again the fog comes down on us as thick as ever. 

 At noon to-day we estimated we were in longitude 159 E., and 

 since that we have sailed some way to the west, so that we are 

 now practically behind Wilkes' alleged land. But as there is a 

 long swell from the north, it is plain that there cannot be any 

 extent of land in that direction ; it is still possible that Wilkes 

 may have seen some islands, but this we can only determine 

 when the weather clears. 



' It has cleared to some extent to-night, and has shown us 

 more than one berg in our vicinity. At seven o'clock we 



