454 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
wind. At 7 p.m. it had become so violent that all navigation was very 
difficult. Itwas impossible to remain in the rigging, which was covered 
with sharp icicles; the men could hardly stand on the deck, which 
was constantly swept by waves. It was an awful night; happily we 
only met on our course a few scattered icebergs, which we were able to 
see in time to avoid. No obstacle presented itself, while the snow 
falling in huge flakes, and a thick fog, hardly allowed us to see objects 
at the distance of one mast from another; for, as I said before, if we 
had met a single iceberg in such a situation, we should infallibly have 
been lost. 
How painful were my reflections at such a moment! If we had 
perished that day, all the records of the expedition would have been 
destroyed; I had not even the consolation of thinking that I had 
been led into this new ice expedition by the instructions which had 
been entrusted to me. For myself, life was nothing: condemned to 
constant suffering, death would be almost a deliverance; but how 
different was the position of the young sailors with a most honourable 
future before them, who several days before had been so joyous and 
hopeful at the sight of the land we had just discovered. How eagerly 
I scanned the horizon! Uncertain of our position, I feared every 
moment to hear the terrible cry of “Ice-pack to leeward!” for I could 
not disguise from myself that, notwithstanding all our efforts, we should 
end by running on to those terrible reefs of ice without any chance of 
salvation. From the calculations of M. Dumoulin, only ten leagues 
separated us from the head of the gulf. Allowing for drifting, we 
should cross this space in twelve hours; but as we had to go about 
every instant in order to double the floating ice on our route, our 
chances of safety tended to diminish still more. It is in such danger 
as this that one can best judge of the crew who have to brave it. I 
can say that never did the men of the Astrolabe show a more noble 
courage ; everyone, officers and men, on this occasion showed an intrepid 
zeal, a stoical abnegation, worthy of the highest praise. Two officers 
were constantly on duty on the poop; the men relieved each other 
hour by hour, but the cold was so intense, and the work so trying, that 
the crew were exhausted. 
Jan. 25.—At last, the next day, at 10 a.m., the wind suddenly 
lowered, the gusts became rarer and less violent, the horizon cleared, 
and hope began to revive on board the Astrolabe. The man on watch 
thought he could see from aloft the Zélée a long way off to leeward, 
but the cannon which we discharged to show her our position received 
no answer. The wind soon began again to blow strongly, bringing 
with it snow, which blocked out the horizon afresh; it was the last 
dying effort of the storm, the wind sank all at once and became 
practicable; the horizon cleared, we saw land, and were able to note 
the effect of a gale upon the ice. All the islands which we had seen 
