120 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



On the 17th they saw no less than thirty-eight ice islands, 

 about which many whales were playing. 



On the 1st February, in the afternoon, Captain Furneaux 

 informed Captain Cook that he had just seen a large float 

 of sea or rock weed, and about it several birds. These were, 

 certainly, signs of the vicinity of land ; but whether it lay 

 to the east or west, was not possible for them to know. 

 " Being nearly in the meridian of the island of Mauritius, 

 where we were to expect to find the land, said to be dis- 

 covered by the French, we saw not the least signs of it," 

 observes Captain Cook.* 



On the 8th of February, having lost sight of the Adventure, 

 they suspected a separation had taken place, though they 

 were at a loss to tell how it had happened. Captain 

 Furneaux had been ordered by Captain Cook, in case he was 

 separated, to cruise three days in the place where he last 

 saw him ; he, therefore, continued making short boards, and 

 firing half-hour guns, till the 9th in the afternoon, when 

 the weather having cleared up, they could see several 

 leagues round them, and found that the Adventure was not 

 within the limits of their horizon. At this time they were 

 about two or three leagues to the eastward of the situation 

 they were in when they last saw her. Next day they saw 

 nothing of her, notwithstanding the weather was pretty 

 clear, and Captain Cook had kept firing guns, and burning 

 false fires all night. He, therefore, gave over looking for 

 her, made sail, and steered S.E. with a fresh gale, accom- 

 panied with a high sea. 



On the 17th, at nine in the morning, they bore down 

 to an island of ice, which they reached by noon. It was 

 full half a mile in circuit, and two hundred feet high at 

 least, though very little loose ice about it. But while 

 they were considering whether or no they should hoist out 

 boats to take some up, a great quantity broke from the 

 island. Of this detached part they made a shift to get 

 on board about nine or ten tons before eight o'clock, when 

 they hoisted in the boats and made sail to the east, inclining 

 to the south. 



On the 23rd, they tacked, and spent the night, which was 

 exceedingly stormy, thick, and hazy, with sleet and snow, 

 in making short boards. Surrounded on every side with 



* " We've been for these six or seven days past cruizing for the 

 land the Frenchman gave intelligence of at the Cape of Good Hope. 

 If my friend Monsieur found any land, he has been confoundedly out 

 in the latitude and longitude of it, for we have searched the spot he 

 represented it in, and its environs too, pretty narrowly, and the devil 

 an inch of land is there." Extract Lieutenant Clerke's Log, 

 Records, Admiralty, Whitehall. 



