65 



SANDWICH LAND. 



[1823. 



web-footed, Port Egmont hens, albatrosses, and Nellies, and a num- 

 ber of very curious birds, about the size of a pigeon, with a green 

 head. The back of this bird was a gray black, and the breast was 

 variegated with all the colours of the rainbow. The tail, which was 

 long and bushy, was of a hue approaching to yellow, and resembling 

 the bird of paradise. 



February 28th. — On Friday, the twenty-eighth, the cheering cry of 

 " Land, ho !" resounded from aloft. This proved to be the Candlemas 

 Isles, the most northerly islands of Sandwich Land; lat. 57° 10' S., 

 long. 26° 59' W. These two islands are of no great extent, but one of 

 them is of considerable height, both being burning volcanoes ; and the 

 most western having burnt down nearly to a level with the sea. We 

 continued examining these islands towards the south, until we arrived at 

 the Southern Thule ; where, on the north-east side of the westernmost 

 island, we found a good harbour. In this group we saw nine burning 

 volcanoes — fire in abundance, but no fuel for the Wasp. Three of 

 these islands had vomited out so much of their entrails, that their sur- 

 faces were nearly even with the water. 



We looked on these islands in vain for wood, of which we were 

 very much in want ; as we had not made a fire on board the Wasp but 

 once a week, for the last fourteen days ; having with that fire boiled 

 meat sufficient to serve the officers and crew for seven days ; and this 

 economical regulation we were obliged to adhere to until we arrived 

 at Staten Land, on the twenty-fourth of March. All the islands which 

 constitute what is called Sandwich Land are entirely barren. Those 

 parts which have not been consumed by internal fires are very high, 

 and covered with perpetual snow; the rest is broken land. The 

 westernmost of the Southern Thule is in lat. 59° 35' 10" S., long. 27° 

 42' 30" W. 



March 6th. — After having examined the islands of Sandwich Land, 

 without discovering a single fur-seal, and only about four hundred sea- 

 elephants, together with about fifty sea-dogs, we again directed our 

 attention towards the antarctic seas. At five P. M. we steered to the 

 south and west, with the wind from W.N.W., attended with frequent 

 squalls of snow and hail. 



March 10 th. — We continued standing to the south and west, with 

 our starboard tacks on board, until Monday, the tenth of March ; when, 

 at four A. M., we found ourselves once more in a very dangerous situ- 

 ation, being hemmed in on every side by field-ice. After exerting our- 

 selves, however, for about twenty-four hours, in a thick snow-storm, 

 we made our escape into an open sea, entirely free of ice. This 

 was in lat. 64° 21' S., long. 38° 51' W. We then took the wind from 

 the west, and stood to the south, under double-reefed sails, until Friday 

 the fourteenth, when our latitude was 70° 14' S. long. 40° 3' W. 



March 14th. — The sea was now entirely free of field-ice, and there 

 were not more than a dozen ice-islands in sight. At the same time, 

 the temperature both of the air and the water was at least thirteen de- 

 grees higher (more mild) than we had ever found it between the par- 

 allels of sixty and sixty-two south. We were now in lat. 70° 14' S., 

 and the temperature of the air was forty-seven, and that of the water 



