Voyage of Capt. Sir James C. Ross to the Antarctic. 25 



oms the temperature was 39°-7, and at the surface 39°. At 

 profound depths of several thousand fathoms the temperature 

 would doubtless be uniform or nearly so. 



In a very dark and foggy night the ships kept company by 

 firing muskets, but the bell and gong were still more audible, and 

 a conversation was carried on with the other ship by a speaking 

 trumpet with almost perfect distinctness. 



Dec. 15. — The barometer rose, and although the fog was so 

 thick that the vessels were invisible to each other, still the orders 

 were distinctly given and understood. 



Dec. 16. — The fog having cleared a little, several icebergs 

 were seen — temperature of the sea below 33°. The largest 

 berg was 130 feet high and three quarters of a mile in circuit ; 

 it was table topped, deep caverns had been worn in its sides, and 

 a long line of loose pieces extended several miles to leeward of it, 

 and other masses were ready to fall. 



The latitude was 58° 36' S., long. 146° 43' W., magnetic dip 

 73° 23' S., variation 14° 40' E. 



On this meridian it was determined to penetrate due south in 

 the hope of discovering land, (which was indicated by the ap- 

 pearance of the ice,) and by a wish to deviate as far as possible 

 from the route of last year. 



Dec. 17. — Icebergs and their floating fragments were frequent. 

 The proximity of a large body of ice was indicated by the ice 

 blink and by a sudden fall in temperature to 29° at midnight, 

 and at 3 a. m. the main pack was seen stretching across the 

 course from E. to W. 



They ran into it at once, and it being light and open, they 

 made thirty miles south without much difficulty, but as it then 

 became heavy and more closely packed they could not continue 

 to sail exactly on a meridian. Temperature 28°, lat. 60° 50' S., 

 long. 147° 25' W. Dip 76 S., variation nearly 19 E. 



Myriads of animalcules stained the ice as had been seen in the 

 former cruise off Mount Erebus ; they were ascertained at Berlin 

 by Ehrenberg to be creatures with siliceous shells. 



Whales were seen among the ice, and so tame that the ship 

 ran upon one and received a shock. 



Dec. 19— The ice was very close, and the vessels forced their 

 way from hole to hole ; they had penetrated nearly 100 miles in 

 a S.W. course, and the ice giving way a little the ships were 

 pushed twenty miles further ; but on the 20th, the ice again clo- 

 sed and stopped their progress. Soundings were obtained in 

 1700 fathoms, almost two miles : the mean temperature in this 

 latitude is about 600 fathoms below the surface. 



Some seals were killed on the ice ; they seemed unconscious 

 of danger and made no resistance. In the stomach of one were 

 nine pounds of granite stones, doubtless from the icebergs, as 



Second Series, Vol. VIII, No. 22.— July, 1849. 4 



