SEALING IN THE ANTARCTIC. 541 



possession of them, in 1833 and formed a colony which is now- 

 ruled by a governor and is also the see of a colonial bishopric. 

 The colony at first was far from prosperous, but since IS80 the 

 revenue has considerably exceeded the expenditure. During our 

 stay at Port Stanley his Excellency the Governor honored our 

 ships with a visit, as well as several of the residents of the settle- 

 ment, and we are greatly indebted to his Excellency and Lady 

 Goldsworthy for the hospitality they showed us. 



Early on Sunday morning we took leave of the Falkland Is- 

 lands and steered for the ice, and on December 16th, in latitude 

 59° 18' south, longitude 51° 01' west, met the first iceberg — it was 

 of enormous dimensions and tabular; a second was sighted in 

 the evening. The same day we met myriads of cape pigeons, also 

 many blue petrel and molly-hawks. The sea was literally swarm- 

 ing with whales of the finner kind, and their resounding blasts 

 could be seen on all sides. So numerous were the cape pigeons, 

 and so eager were they for any scraps thrown over the ship's side, 

 that any number of them could have been caught with small 

 hand-nets only large enough to contain one at a time, and many 

 of them were thus captured by the crew. That night it became 

 overcast and rainy, and at midnight a fog came on ; fogs contin- 

 ued, with shorter intervals of clearer weather, during which in- 

 tervals we were able to push southward for the next few days, 

 and the weather was squally, the wind being from northeast, 

 north, and northwest, varying in force from a light air to a mod- 

 erate gale. After six days of this inhospitable weather, the wind 

 on the afternoon of December 22d shifted more to the south, and 

 the fog quickly lifted. On December 17th we met with the first 

 seal — it was one of the larger kind which Ross described, nearly 

 twelve feet long, having a bearlike head, with formidable canine 

 teeth ; it was curled up and asleep, and it was drifting by as we 

 lay in the fog. It was promptly shot and brought aboard by a 

 boat lowered away for the purpose. Several pieces of drift ice 

 were seen on the 17th of December, and several bergs, nearly all 

 flat-topped. On the evening of the 22d we first met with a flock 

 of ten or a dozen of the beautiful sheathbill, and on the morning 

 of the 23d sighted and passed the group of Danger Islets, lying 

 off the extreme west of Joinville Land, which was lying behind 

 them. The sea in the evening became of an olive-brown color, 

 and we met with the snowy petrel, two indications which Ross 

 noticed of the main pack being at hand. On the following even- 

 ing three of the Dundee ships made fast to a very large floe. On 

 Christmas day observations were taken, and it was found that 

 we were a little south of Ross's position on New- Year's eve of the 

 summer of 1842-'43 — viz., latitude 61° 13' south, longitude 55° 52 

 west, and where he says " great numbers of the largest-sized black 



