Appearance of the sun and moon at the same . -vjm A or'Tfr 

 time. Fight between a whale and killer. AiN 1 AKU11L, 



Proceedings of the Peacock 

 Soundings. 



135 



it in this quarter, they stood out of the bay, which 

 was about twenty miles deep, to proceed to the 

 westward, hoping to get an opportunity to ap- 

 proach the object more closely on the other side. 



We had a beautiful and unusual sight presented 

 to us this night : the sun and nioon both ap- 

 peared above the horizon at the same time, and 

 each throwing its light abroad. The latter was 

 nearly full. The former illuminated the icebergs 

 and distant continent with his deep golden rays; 

 while the latter, in the opposite horizon, tinged 

 with silvery light the clouds in its immediate 

 neighbourhood. There now being no donbt in 

 any mind of the discovery of land, it gave an 

 exciting interest to the cruise, that appeared to 

 set aside all thought of fatigue, and to make every 

 one willing to encounter any difficulty to effect a 

 landing. 



20th. This day, on board the Peacock they wit- 

 nessed a sea-fight between a whale and one of its 

 many enemies. The sea was quite smooth, and 

 offered the best possible view of the whole combat. 

 First, at a distance from the ship, a whale was 

 seen floundering in a most extraordinai-y way, lash- 

 ing the smooth sea into a perfect foam, and en- 

 deavouring apparently to extricate himself from 

 some annoyance. As he approached the ship, the 

 struggle continuing and becoming more violent, 

 it was perceived that a fish, apparently about 

 twenty feet long, held him by the jaw, his contor- 

 tions, spouting, and throes all betokening the agony 

 of the huge monster. The whale now threw him- 

 self at full length from the water with open mouth, 

 his pursuer still hanging to the jaw, the blood 

 issuing from the wound and dyeing the sea to a 

 distance around; but all his flounderings were of 

 no avail; his pertinacious enemy still maintained 

 his hold, and was evidently getting the advantage 

 of him. Much alarm seemed to be felt by the 

 many other whales around. These " killers," as 

 they are called, are of a brownish colour on the 

 back, and white on the belly, with a long dorsal fin. 

 Such was the turbulence with which they passed, 

 that a good view could not be had of them to make 

 out more nearly the description. These fish attack 

 a whale in the same way as dogs bait a bull, and 

 worry him to death. They are armed with strong 

 sharp teeth, and generally seize the whale by the 

 lower jaw. It is said that the only part of them 

 they eat is the tongue. The whalers give some 

 marvellous accounts of these killers and of their 

 immense strength ; among them, that they have 

 been known to drag a whale away from several 

 boats which were towing it to the ship. 



There was a great quantity of animalculse in the 

 water, and some large squids (medusae) and quan- 

 tities of shrimp were frequently seen about the 

 icebergs; these are no doubt the attractions which 

 bring whales to frequent these seas. 



The last two days we had very many beautiful 

 snow-white petrels about. The character of the ice 

 had now become entirely changed. The tabular- 

 formed icebergs prevailed, and there was com- 

 paratively little field-ice. Some of the bergs were 

 of magnificent dimensions, one-third of a mile in 

 length, and from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred feet in height, with sides perfectly smooth, 

 as though they had been chiselled. Others again, 

 exhibited lofty arches of many-coloured tints, lead- 

 ing into deep caverns, open to the swell of the 



sea, which rushing in, produced loud and distant 

 thnnderings. The flight of birds passing in and 

 out of these caverns, recalled the recollection of 

 ruined abbeys, castles, and caves, while here and 

 there a bold projecting bluff, crowned with pinnacles 

 and turrets, resembled some Gothic keep. A little 

 further onwards would be seen a vast fissure, as if 

 some powerful force had rent in twain these mighty 

 masses. Every noise on board, even our own voices, 

 reverberated from the massive and pure white walls. 

 These tabular bergs are like masses of beautiful 

 alabaster : a verbal description of them can do 

 little to convey the reality to the imagination of 

 one who has not been among them. If an im- 

 mense city of ruined alabaster palaces can be 

 imagined, of every variety of shape and tint, and 

 composed of huge piles of buildings grouped to- 

 gether, with long lanes or streets winding irre- 

 gularly through them, some faint idea may be 

 formed of the grandeur and beauty of the spec- 

 tacle. The time and circumstances under which 

 we were viewing them, threading our way through 

 these vast bergs, we knew not to what end, left an 

 impression upon me of these icy and desolate 

 regions that can never be forgotten. 



22nd. It was now, during fine weather, one con- 

 tinued day ; but we had occasional snow-squalls 

 that produced an obscurity that was tantalizing. 

 The bergs were so vast and inaccessible, that there 

 was no possibility of landing upon them. 



The Peacock and Porpoise were in sight of each 

 other this day. A large number of whales, al- 

 batrosses, petrels, penguins, &c., were seen around, 

 and a flock of ducks was also reported as having 

 been seen from the Vincennes, as well as several 

 seals. The effect of sunrise, at a little after 2 A.M., 

 on the 23rd, was glorious. 



As the events which occurred on board the 

 Peacock during the next few days are particularly 

 interesting, I shall proceed to narrate them in de- 

 tail, leaving the Vincennes and Porpoise to pursue 

 their route along their dangerous and novel path- 

 way. 



The Peacock stood into the bay which the Vin- 

 cennes had found closed the day before, and saw 

 the same appearance of high land in the distance. 

 The water was much discoloured, and of a dark 

 dirty green. They hove-to, for the double purpose 

 of getting a cast of the lead, and of lowering the 

 boats to carry the instruments to a small iceberg, 

 on which it was possible to land, for the purpose 

 of making magnetic observations. A line of one 

 thousand four hundred fathoms was prepared to 

 sound, and to the lead was attached the cylinder 

 with Six's thermometer. The wind being fresh, 

 several leads at different distances were attached 

 to the line. They were not aware that the lead- 

 line had touched bottom, until they began to haul 

 in, when it was found that the lead bent on at five 

 hundred fathoms was filled with blue and slate- 

 coloured mud. Attached to the lead also was a 

 piece of stone, and a fresh bruise on it, as though 

 the lead had struck heavily on rock. 



The remainder of the line had evidently lain on 

 the bottom, as the copper cylinder was covered 

 with mud, and the water inside of it was quite 

 muddy. They then beat up a short distance 

 to windward, and again sounded, when, with the 

 line hanging vertically, bottom was reached at 

 three hundred and twenty fathoms ; the matter 



