APPENDIX. 407 



In doing this, we of course kept well prepared, as the different icebergs 

 popped upon us, to tack, veer, or perform such other evolutions as 

 were found necessary to avoid them. 



On the evening of the 25th of March, having reached the latitude 

 of 68° 08' S., and then in longitude 95° 44' W., (we had been as far 

 west as 97° 58',) with the air at 29°, and the water 30° of Fahrenheit, 

 — having had it much lower, as far back as the 17th, and to the north- 

 ward of us, where the ship was covered with ice, as well as some 

 parts of her gun-deck, — the sun having crossed the equator, and made 

 some northern declination; the shortness of the days here, and the 

 little time allowed for running the ship amongst icebergs, without 

 much hazard, in consequence of fogs and snow-storms ; the miserable 

 condition of the Peacock for a winter's campaign, in the event of 

 being frozen in ; the masses of ice we had yet to pass through on our 

 return, and the nature of my instructions : these circumstances, com- 

 bined with the report of Lieutenant Walker, premonished me of the 

 necessity of turning the ship's head towards a more temperate climate. 



It required more moral courage to bring my mind to this decision 

 than I can well describe, for we had at that moment less ice about us 

 than at any time since we had entered its neighbourhood ; and had I 

 followed my own inclinations merely, and allowed the promptings of 

 ambition, or love of praise, to have governed my decisions, regardless 

 of the future operations of the Expedition, the lives of my officers and 

 men, and the trust reposed in me by the government, I should indeed 

 have been unworthy of the trust I hold, and ever felt a consciousness, 

 that whatever more might have been achieved, by any further attempt 

 south, at that late season, would have been acquired only by recklessly 

 hazarding, what an honest conviction of duty to my country, and the 

 lives intrusted to my care, most decidedly forbade. 



We observed the aurora australis for the first time on the night of 

 the 15th of March, in the latitude of 65° 24' S., and again on the 16th, 

 18th, and 26th. On the night of the 18th, an arc of pale twilight was 

 described in the southern quarter, reaching an altitude of twelve 

 degrees, and extending from, southwest to southeast ; both above and 

 below the arc were horizontal sheets of dark stratus clouds, and 

 between the lower strata and the horizon, a suspended bank of mist or 

 vapour, having all the appearance of a shadow cast on the sky ; rays 

 of light were continually being thrown out along the whole extent of 

 the arc, assuming various hues, of pale red, light blue, violet, and 

 straw-coloured tints ; radiating towards the zenith, and reaching alti- 

 tudes of from twenty-five to forty-five degrees. These exhibitions 

 were confined to that particular portion of the horizon, and continued 



