310 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL, 
all night, was in hopes we had got to the westward of it. The thermo- 
meter, while among ice, 32° air, 382° water; but after standing some 
miles to the northward it rose to 34°. 
Dec. 26.—a.m., hazy weather. Wind, W.N.W. Found ourselves, on 
the weather clearing up a little, completely encircled with ice, and had 
not the water continued smooth our situation would have been ex- 
tremely dangerous, as, independent of the small seas of field-ice, the 
whole space was completely covered with drift pieces, some swimming 
very deep in the water, which a vessel striking; upon would most likely 
knock a hole in her bottom, so that from this until the 29th in the 
forenoon we were utterly prevented from steering on any one course 
for more than a few minutes at a time, and every opening which 
appeared in the ice turned out to be nothing more than a bay, which 
generally obliged us to haul or beat about again within two or three 
points of the compass from which we entered, and never at any time 
had we less than fifty to a hundred ice-islands round us. Where these 
could all come from Iam at a loss entirely to conceive. Whilst among 
the ice the thermometer generally remained at 32°, the wind generally 
from the westward. 
Dec. 29.—On the morning of the 29th it hauled more to the south- 
ward. At 11 a.m. I had the pleasure to find myself clear of the field-ice, 
with nothing more than the drift pieces and plenty of icebergs, which 
were thought little of, as the danger seldom appeared to run more than 
two ships’ length from them. At noon our latitude by observation was 
59° 11', longitude by chronometer, 24° 22’ W., and the wind now blow- 
ing a fresh gale from the 8.W., 1 determined to spend another day or 
two in endeavouring to get to Sandwich Land by the northward and 
westward, and hauled upon the wind on the larboard tack, and at 6 a.m. 
of the 30th, saw land in the S.W. At noon, two islands of the Sandwich 
Land bore north and south nearly. The northernmost one I had formerly 
visited. The latitude at noon was 58° 41'S., longitude by means of all 
chronometers 36° 57' 45” W., which places the centres in 27° 00’. Lati- 
tude of the northernmost 58° 81’ §.—the northernmost part of the 
southern one 59° 00'S. Sent the cutter to the northward to overhaul a 
point of land which appeared to run out low into the sea, and stood to the 
southward with the Tula. At 4 p.m. sent the second mate with the boat on 
shore. Observed the cutter closing from the northward, sent her boat to 
some rocks, which appeared likely to produce something. At 9 the boats 
returned without finding any vestige of scal or elephant, and observing 
field-ice to stretch from the rocks to the land, the wind easterly, and 
weather thick, I thought it best to stand to the eastward in prosecution 
of our voyage. 
1831. Jan, 1.—Strong winds from the 8.E. with thick weather, much 
snow and sleet. Employed all these 24 hours and the 2nd getting to the 
eastward. 
