X INTRODUCTION. 



glare of his meridian ray ; whereas here, on the con- 

 trary, it is the signal for universal repose. 



" This period of the day had no sooner arrived in 

 Magdalena Bay than there was a stillness which bor- 

 dered on the sublime — a stillness which was inter- 

 rupted only by the bursting of an iceberg, or the 

 report of some fragment of rock loosened from its 

 hold. These sounds, indeed, which came booming 

 over the placid surface of the bay, could hardly be 

 considered interruptions to the general silence, for, 

 speedily dying away in the distance, they left behind 

 a stillness even more profound than before. 



" In the daytime, the presence of our expedition 

 was not disregarded. The birds shunned us in their 

 flight, and every noise which was occasionally made, 

 sounding strange to the place, sent to a greater dis- 

 tance the seagulls that were fishing among the rocks, 

 and kept on the alert whole herds of animals, many 

 of M"hich would otherwise have been lost in sleep ; 

 causing them to raise their heads when anything fell 

 upon our deck, and to cast a searching look over the 

 bay, as if to inquire whence so unusual a disturbance 

 proceeded. These little alarms, which would have 

 passed unheeded in situations frequented by man, 

 proved, more than any other incident, how great a 

 stranger he was in these regions ; a feeling which, I 

 must confess, carried with it an agreeable sensation, 

 arising, no doubt, from the conviction that Ave were 

 treading on ground which had been but rarely visited 

 before."^ 



' \'uya<fc of Discovery towards the North Pole, performed in his 

 Majesty's ships Dorothea and Trent, under the command of Captain 



