334 ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 



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 realize 

 a sense of security when the perils we had just passed through were 

 so fresh in our minds, and others still impending. Towards four 

 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 southwest; at 6 v. 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 realized 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 eight o'clock, we 

 had reached the icy barrier, and hove-to close to it. It was tanta- 

 lizing, with the land in sight, to be again and again blocked out- 

 Open water was seen near the land to the southwest of us, and a 

 tortuous channel through the broken ice to leeward, apparently lead- 

 ing 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 windward, and a clear channel to the northwest, 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 



