ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 329 



19th. Daring this day the barrier trended more to the northeast, 

 and we not unfrequently entered bays so deep as to find ourselves, on 

 reaching the extremity, cut off by the barrier, and compelled to return 

 to within a few miles of the place where we had entered. I thought 

 at first that this might have been caused by the tide or current, but 

 repeated trials showed none. Neither did I detect any motion in the 

 floating ice except what was caused by the wind. Our longitude to- 

 day was 101° E., latitude 63° 02' S. Some anxiety seemed to exist 

 among the officers and crew lest we should find ourselves embayed or 

 cut off from the clear sea, by a line of barrier. There appeared strong 

 reason for this apprehension, as the smooth sea we had had for several 

 days still continued; we had been sailing as if upon a river, and the 

 water had not assumed its blue colour. 



It was, therefore, with great pleasure that, on the 20th, a slight 

 swell was perceived, and the barrier began to trend more to the north- 

 ward, and afterwards again to the westward. In the morning we found 

 ourselves still surrounded by great numbers of ice-islands. After 

 obtaining a tolerably clear space, the day being rather favourable, we 

 sounded with the deep-sea line eight hundred and fifty fathoms. Six's 

 thermometer gave at the surface 31°, and at the depth of eight hundred 

 and fifty fathoms 35°, an increase of four degrees. The current was 

 again tried, but none was found. A white object was visible at eleven 

 fathoms. The water had now assumed a bluish cast. 



We endeavoured to-day to land on an iceberg, but there was too 

 much sea. Shrimps were in great quantities about it, but swam too 

 deep to be taken. The wind again hauled to the westward, which 

 disappointed me, as I was in hopes of getting to the position where 

 Cook saw the ice in 1773, being now nearly in the same latitude. It 

 was less than one hundred miles to the westward of us ; and little 

 doubt can exist that its situation has not materially changed in sixty- 

 seven years. 



The observations of the squadron during this season's Antarctic 

 cruise, together with those of the preceding year, would seem to 

 confirm the opinion that very little change takes place in the line of 

 ice. It may be inferred that the line of perpetual congelation exists in 

 a lower latitude in some parts of the southern hemisphere than in 

 others. The icy barrier retreats several degrees to the south of the 

 Antarctic Circle to the west of Cape Horn, while to the eastward it in 

 places advances to the northward of that line, which is no doubt owing 

 to the situation of the land. From the great quantities of ice to be 

 found drifting in all parts of the ocean in high southern latitudes, I am 

 induced to believe that the formation of the ice-islands is much more 



vol. ii. 2C2 42 



