ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 323 



sun cast a red tint, that barely rendered them visible. . The horizon, 

 with this exception, appeared clear and well defined. The spurs or 

 brushes of light frequently reached the . zenith, converging to a point 

 near it. 



Although 'no clouds could be seen in the direction of the aurora, 

 before or after its appearance, yet when it was first seen, there 

 appeared clouds, of the form of massive cumuli, tinged with pale 

 yellow, and behind them arose brilliant red, purple, orange, and yellow- 

 tints, streaming upwards in innumerable radiations, with all the shades 

 .that a combination of these colours could effect. In its most brilliant 

 state it lasted about twenty minutes. The gold-leaf electrometer was 

 tried, but without being affected: the instrument, however, was not 

 very sensitive. Being somewhat surprised at the vast mass of cumuli 

 which appeared -during the continuance of the aurora, I watched after 

 its disappearance till daylight, but could see only a few clouds : I am 

 therefore inclined to impute the phenomenon to some deception caused 

 by the light of the aurora. The apparent altitude of these clouds 

 was 8°. 



On the 10th we were again favoured by the weather; it gave us a 

 fine sunshine, and an opportunity of airing the ship and drying the 

 clothes. All the sick were improving in health. 



Running close along the barrier, which continued of the same 

 character, although more broken than yesterday, we saw an appear- 

 ance of land, although indistinctly, to the southward. The water was 

 of the same colour here as before, and the wind being from the south- 

 southeast, we made some progress, and found ourselves in longitude 

 122° 35' E., latitude 65° 2V S. : the variation had now increased to 

 44° 30' westerly. No aurora was seen this night, although it was 

 looked for anxiously. 



11th. The barometer had been stationary at 29-080 in. for the last 

 three days : it now began to fall ; the temperature of the air was 31°, 

 of the water 32°. The fall of the barometer was soon followed by 

 snow and thick weather. The trending of the barrier had been south- 

 west-by-west, and a good deal of floe-ice had been met with, which 

 we ran through. The sea was quite smooth, and many icebergs were 

 enclosed in the barrier, which was very compact and composed of 

 flat fields. At 10 p. m., I found it too dark to run, and hove-to. 



During the 12th we had pleasant weather, and at 2 a.- m. filled away. 

 At 8 a. m., land was reported to the southwest. Keeping along the 

 barrier and increasing our latitude, I again had hopes of getting near 

 the land. We passed through great quantities of large floe-ice until 1 



