PASSAGES. 



73 



sage : no ice was seen, and the long days make it less hazardous to 

 encounter. In some years, during the months of December and 

 January, much ice has been met with, so much so that many of our 

 whale ships have considered it far safer to put back to the northward 

 again, and wait until it disappeared. 



The passage by Cape Horn may be at all times considered the best 

 for homeward-bound ships from the coast of New Holland or New 

 Zealand. The track during the summer to insure steady and favor- 

 able winds, is between the latitudes of 45° and 50° south. In the 

 winter months of the southern hemisphere, it would be much better 

 to keep near the parallel of 40° south, until approaching the Cape, 

 when a course which would lead for it should be adopted : this will 

 secure better weather and more constant winds; 



THE ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 



Between the 26th of December, 1839, and the 11th of March, 1840. 



Although this does not come within the usual limits of the pas- 

 sages or routes of vesels, yet it may prove of use to navigators who 

 visit the high southern latitudes. 



On leaving Sydney we had easterly winds, which enabled us to 

 stand to the southward, and favored us for several days, gradually 

 hauling to the northward and eastward. On reaching the latitude 

 of 45° south, the wind came from the north, and northward and 

 westward, accompanied with lightning and thunder, a change of 

 weather, boisterous, misty, and disagreeable, settling into thick fog, 

 attended with a fall of the mercury in both the barometer and ther- 

 mometer. On the tenth day we made Macquarie's Island. The 

 westerly winds, which had set in strong, with a northeasterly current, 

 carried us to leeward of that island. Vessels wishing to visit Mac- 

 quarie's Island ought to allow for a northeasterly set of 20 to 30 

 miles in the 24 hours. The south end of Macquarie's Island we 

 place in latitude 54° 44' south, and longitude 159° 49' west : it is 

 within the stormy latitudes. After leaving it we cannot be said to 

 have enjoyed any continuance of fine weather in the higher latitudes, 

 along the Antarctic continent especially, while the wind was in the 

 western quarter. After passing to the west of 160° longitude, instead 



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