398 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
it lasted about twenty minutes. The gold-leaf electrometer was tried, 
but without being affected: the instrument, however, was not very 
sensitive. Being somewhat surprised at the vast mass of cumuli which 
appeared during the continuance of the aurora, I watched after its dis- 
appearance till daylight, but could see only a few clouds: I am, there- 
fore, inclined to impute the phenomenon to some deception caused by 
the light of the aurora. The apparent altitude uf these clouds was 8°. 
On the 10th we were again favoured by the weather; it gave us a 
fine sunshine, and an opportunity of airing the ship and drying the 
clothes. All the sick were improving in health. 
Running close along the barrier, which continued of the same cha- 
racter, although more broken than yesterday, we saw an appearance of 
land, although indistinctly, to the southward. The water was of the 
same colour here as before, and the wind being from the south-south- 
east we made some progress, and found ourselves in longitude 122° 35’ E., 
latitude 65° 27’ S.; the variation had now increased to 44° 30' westerly. 
No aurora was seen this night, although it was looked for anxiously. 
11th—The barometer had been stationary at 29°080 in. for the 
last three days; it now began to fall; the temperature of the air was 
31°, of the water 32°. The fall of the barometer was soon followed by 
snow and thick weather. The trending of the barrier had been south- 
west by west, and a good deal of floe-ice had been met with, which we 
ran through. The sea was quite smooth, and many icebergs were 
enclosed in the barrier, which was very compact and composed of flat 
fields. At 10 p.m. I found it too dark to run, and hove-to. 
During the 12th we had pleasant weather, and at 2 a.m. filled away. 
At 8 a.m. land was reported to the south-west. Keeping along the 
barrier and increasing our latitude, I again had hopes of getting near 
the land. We passed through great quantities of floe-ice until 1 p.m, 
when the solid barrier prevented our farther progress. Land was now 
distinctly seen, from eighteen to twenty miles distant, bearing from 
south-south-east to south-west—a lofty mountain range, covered with 
snow, though showing many ridges and indentations. I laid the ship 
to for three hours, in hopes of discovering somie opening or movement 
in the ice, but none was experienced. I tried the current, and found 
none. The water was of a dirty dark green. We sounded with the 
wire-line in 250 fathoms, and found no bottom. The temperature at 
that depth was 303°, of the air 31°. The barrier had in places the 
appearance of being broken up, and we had decreased our longitude 
to 112° 16’ 12” I., while our latitude was 64° 57’. This puts the land 
in about 65° 20'S., and its trending nearly east and west. The line of 
the icy barrier was generally uniform, although it was occasionally 
pierced with deep bays. We saw some icebergs with decided spots of 
earth on them, which gave me hopes of yet obtaining the object of my 
wishes. The water was remarkably smooth during this day, and the 
