THE JOURNAL OF JOHN BISCOE. 823 
employed in endeavouring to work a passage through the ice, but after 
many fruitless attempts and some heavy blows, were always frustrated. 
pM. As our attempts to near the land every hour opens some new object 
- to us, and seeing a bluff point in S.E. which has every appearance of a 
cape, I still have hopes of accomplishing my wish. Latitude, at noon, 
66° 7’, longitude, 49° 6’ 30" E. The main body from 8.W. to S.E. about 
twelve leagues (nearly calm), having stood far in among the ice, I found 
some difficulty in clearing it again, and as the calm had lasted several 
hours, the sea froze to that excess that on the morning of the 3rd we 
found it at least an inch thick over the whole surface of the water, and 
which impeded our progress through it very much. 
March 3.—Thermometer, air 324°, water 30°. At the same time, 
nearly the whole night, the Aurora Australis showed the most brilliant 
appearance, at times rolling itself over our heads in beautiful columns, 
then as suddenly forming itself as the unrolled fringe of a curtain, 
and again suddenly shooting to the form of a serpent, and at times 
appearing not many yards above us; it was decidedly transacted 
in our own atmosphere, and was without exception the grandest 
phenomenon of nature of its kind I ever witnessed. At this time 
we were completely beset with broken ice, and although the vessels 
were in considerable danger in running through it with a smart 
breeze, which had now sprung up, I could hardly restrain the people 
from looking at the Aurora Australis instead of the vessel’s course. 
Having on the 3rd, in the morning, hauled round to appearance the 
easternmost part of the firm ice, with the wind at 8.W., and after a run 
of about fifteen miles due 8., having entered a narrow channel of about 
three miles broad, formed on the west side by an immense chain of ice- 
islands and on the east by firm field-ice, and seeing an opening ahead 
from the mast-head, was in great hopes to find a passage direct to the 
land, but at 6 p.m. found it blocked up in every direction, nor have I 
been able in any one place to come within 30° of it; hauled out to the 
northward, and at 10 p.m. came into clear water, and on the 4th steered 
along the edge of the field-ice. Our latitude by observation at noon, 
65° 42'S., longitude 49° 29'E. The cape, which I have named Cape Ann, 
by bearings at 4 p.m., being in latitude 66° 25’ 8., longitude 49° 17/45" E. 
At 6.30 a breeze sprung up from 8.E. with squalls. At midnight 
freshened to a stiff breeze, and at 4 p.m. of the 5th blew a fresh gale 
with thick weather shortly after. We lost sight of the cutter, bearing 
about west by north two miles. The gale increased, and at 12 blew a 
perfect hurricane, which lasted without intermission until the morning 
of the 8th. The weather during the whole time was so thick that we 
could scarcely see twice our own length in any direction, and being so 
close to ice of every description, were in a very dangerous situation, the 
vessel being at the same time a complete mass of ice, and the wind 
blowing so intensely cold, it was impossible for the people to hold 
y 2 
