406 APPENDIX. 



ward of the islands of Diego Ramieres, we encountered a gale, in 

 which we lay-to forty hours, in the course of which we parted from 

 our little consort, although we had observed all the precautions of 

 firing guns, burning blue-lights, &c. ; after waiting in vain fourteen 

 hours, with the hope of again meeting her, we resumed our course for 

 the first rendezvous I had appointed with Lieutenant Walker, in the 

 event of separation ; that, as well as some of the others, we were 

 unable to reach, from a succession of westerly gales and boisterous 

 weather. To have persevered in working up for them would have 

 consumed the little time we could yet hope for in the advanced state 

 of the season, for our further progress south. 



Without troubling you with a more minute detail of occurrences, 

 suffice it to say, that on the 11th of March, we fell in with the first 

 icebergs, in the latitude of 63° 30' S., and longitude of 80° W., after 

 which time they were our constant companions (and on more than one 

 occasion very troublesome ones) until we reached the latitude of 68° 08' 

 S., and longitude of 95° 44' W., where to my great joy, we fell in with 

 the Flying-Fish, and learned from Lieutenant Walker that he had 

 passed near most of the appointed rendezvous, and worked down from 

 105° W., until he reached about 70° S. ; that the whole surface of the 

 ocean in the direction of south and west presented a perfect and im- 

 passable barrier of ice ; that he had been completely frozen in for a 

 short time on the 23d, and the ice forming rapidly around him, when, 

 fortunately, a breeze of wind rescued him from his perilous situation. 

 When we fell in with him, he was endeavouring to push his way north. 



From the time of our first falling in with icebergs, we had been 

 daily passing great numbers (as will be shown by the chart), and 

 encountered on the 17th and part of the 18th, the heaviest gale and 

 sea we have experienced since we left the United States ; the thermo- 

 meter in the air at that time standing at 21° of Fahrenheit, and the 

 water at 28° ; the ship completely coated with ice, every spray thrown 

 over her freezing, and about her bows and head fairly packed with 

 it. From the 19th to the 25th, we were without a sight of the sun 

 or sky, surrounded by ice and icebergs, within the most neighbourly 

 distance. During a lift of the fog, for a few moments only, on the 

 morning of the 22d, and by the aid of an ice-blink, we discovered an 

 extended range of icebergs and field-ice in mass, presenting a perfect 

 barrier to our further progress south in that direction ; and so com- 

 pletely were we hemmed in by icebergs on that occasion, that I was 

 compelled to carry all the canvass on the ship that she would bear, 

 and work her out into some more open position, through a fog so 

 dense as to limit our view to two or three times the length of the ship. 



