336 ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 



to drift, we should do so faster than the ice ; I therefore thought it as 

 well to avoid it as long as possible. Another reason determined me 

 to delay the drifting to the latest moment: I did not believe that the 

 extent of the channel we had seen in the morning was more than ten 

 miles in extent, and at the rate we drifted, the end of it would be 

 reached long before the gale was over. This, like the former gale, 

 was an old-fashioned snow-storm. All the canvass we could show to 

 it at one time was a close-reefed main-topsail and fore-storm-staysail. 

 It blew tremendously, and the sea we experienced was a short dis- 

 agreeable one, but nothing to be compared to that which accompanied 

 the first gale. From the shortness of the sea, I inferred that we had 

 some current. This state of things continued for several hours, 

 during which we every moment expected to reach the end of our 

 channel. Since the last gale, the whole crew, officers and men, had 

 been put in watch and watch, ready for an instantaneous call, and 

 prepared for rapid movements. The snow was of the same sleety or 

 cutting character as that of the previous day, and seemed as if armed 

 with sharp icicles or needles. 



The 31st brought no moderation of the weather. At 1 a. m., a 

 group of ice-islands was reported, and shortly afterwards field-ice close 

 under our lee. We wore ship instantly, and just avoided coming in 

 contact with the latter ; sail was immediately made on the ship, and 

 the scene of the former gale again gone through (which it is needless 

 here to repeat), with this exception, that we were now passing to and 

 fro among icebergs immediately to windward of the barrier, and each 

 tack brought us nearer to it. Between 4 and 5 a. m., our space was 

 becoming confined, and there was no abatement of the gale ; I there- 

 fore, as it had cleared sufficiently to enable us to see a quarter of a 

 mile, determined to bear up and run off north-northwest for a clear 

 sea. In doing this we passed icebergs of all dimensions and heavy 

 floe-ice. By 8 h 30™ we had run thirty miles, when, finding a more 

 open sea, I judged we had partially cleared the ice. At noon the 

 gale still continued. The lowest reading of the barometer during 

 this gale was 28-59 in. 



After lasting thirty hours, the gale, at 6 p. M., began to moderate a 

 little, when we again made sail to the southward. I now felt inclined 

 to seek Piner's Bay again, in order to effect a landing. This would 

 have been a great personal gratification ; but the bay was sixty miles 

 distant, so that to revisit it would occupy time that was now precious ; 

 and feeling satisfied that a great extent of land wholly unknown lay 



