24 Voyage of Capt. Sir James C. Ross to the Antarctic. 



Nov. 27. — No bottom with 600 fathoms of line. At this 

 depth the temperature of the sea was 44°-9; at 450 fathoms 

 46°-8; at 300 fathoms 49°-2 ; at 150 fathoms 53°-5 ; and at 

 the surface 58°. Specific gravity of the surface water was 



1-0274; at 150 fathoms 1-0272, and at 450 fathoms 1*0268. 

 All these specific gravities were taken at the surface of the sea at 

 the temperature of 60°. It was proved that the water beneath was 

 specifically lighter than that at the surface when brought to the 

 same temperature, as was confirmed by almost daily experiments. 

 Nov. 29. — A long-snouted porpoise was harpooned, and in its 

 formidable jaws they found the teeth which the New Zealand- 

 ers value so highly as ornaments, and whose source had been 

 unknown. 



Thick fogs prevented their landing on Chatham Island, and 



they kept in company with the Terror only by firing guns. 



Dec. 3. — Barometer at the unusual height of 3045. The 

 cry of the penguins was heard, and the luminous patches in the 

 sea were very brilliant. 



Dec. 4. — Soundings were attempted with 1100 fathoms, but 

 no bottom was found, and two new thermometers were lost ; 

 they had been attached to the line at intervals of 150 fathoms 

 and the line broke. Another line being prepared, thermometers 

 were sent down to 1050 fathoms and came up safe, having borne 

 this enormous pressure, and recording the temperature at that 

 deep region of the ocean to be exactly 40°, or thirteen degrees 

 below that of the surface. 



The mean temperature of the ocean is at least 900 fathoms, 

 or more than a mile below the surface, in lat. 49° 17 / S., and 

 long. 172° 28 / W. 



The penguins were now going to the eastward, proceeding to 

 their breeding quarters — perhaps in the Nimrod Islands. " It is 

 a wonderful instinct far beyond the powers of untutored reason, 

 that enables these creatures to find their way, chiefly under 

 water, several hundred miles, to their places of usual resort, as 

 each succeeding spring season of the year arrives.'' 



Dec. 9.— Lat. 52° 32' S., long 161° 20' W., the dip had in- 

 creased to 70° S. ; the variation was 15° 10' E. A breeze be- 

 came a gale, with rain and snow, and the thermometer sunk from 

 42° to 34° ; the barometer falling to 29-1 at midnight. 



It was a severe night, but not expecting ice in so low a lati- 

 tude they pushed on before the gale in a thick snow storm. 

 They had been drifted by a current fifteen miles daily to the 

 east, and it was concluded that a current circulates round the 

 globe in a belt of about fifty degrees on each side of the fiftieth 

 degree of latitude. 



Dec. 13. — The circle of uniform temperature of the ocean 

 was crossed in lat. 55° 18' S., long. 149° 20' W. At 600 fath- 









