THE NARRATIVE OF CHARLES WILKES. 891 
The barometer was marked at intervals, for which the reader is 
referred to Appendix XXVI. 
This gale was from the south-east, from which quarter it blew 
during the whole of its strength; and when it began to moderate the 
wind veered to the southward; by noon we felt satisfied that the gale 
was over and that we had escaped, although it was difficult to realise 
a sense of security when the perils we had just passed through were 
so fresh in our minds, and others still impending. Towards 4 o’clock 
it cleared off, and we saw but few icebergs near us. Our longitude was 
found to be 140° E., latitude 63° 30’S., and I again made sail for the 
ice to the south, to pass over the very route we had just traversed 
through so many perils. 
The wind had now hauled to the south-west; at 6 p.m. we again 
began to enter among ice-islands. The weather appeared settled, but 
I had so often been deceived by its fickleness that I felt no reliance 
ought to be put in its continuance. A powerful inducement was held 
out to us, in the prospect of getting close enough to effect a landing ; 
and this rendered us insensible to the dangers. 
On the morning of the 30th the sun rose in great brilliancy, and the 
scene could hardly be realised as the same as that we had passed through 
only twenty-four hours before. All was now quiet; a brisk breeze blew 
from the eastward, all sail was set, and there was every prospect that we 
might accomplish our object, for the land was in sight, and the icebergs 
seemed floating in quiet. We wound our way through them in a sea 
so smooth that a yawl might have passed over it in safety. No straight 
line could have been drawn from us in any direction that would not 
have cut a dozen icebergs in the same number of miles, and the wondering 
exclamations of the officers and crew were oft repeated, “ How could we 
have passed through them unharmed?” and “ What a lucky ship!” At 
8 o'clock we had reached the icy barrier, and hove-to close to it. It was 
tantalising with the land in sight to be again and again blocked out. 
Open water was seen near the land to the south-west of us, and a tor- 
tuous channel through the broken ice to leeward, apparently leading to 
it. All sail was immediately crowded; we passed rapidly through, and 
found ourselves again in clear water which reached to the shores; the 
barrier extending in a line with our course about two miles to wind- 
ward, and a clear channel to the north-west about two miles wide as far 
as the eye could reach. Seeing this, I remarked to one of the officers 
that it would have been a good place to drift in during the last 
gale, little thinking that in a few short hours it would serve us for 
that purpose in still greater need, A brisk gale ensued, and the ship 
ran at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour; one reef was taken in 
the topsails, and we stood directly in for the most southerly part of 
the bay. 
This bay was formed partly by rocks and partly by ice-islands. The 
