THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



tion, it being now dark, I hove to and attempted to sound. 

 This operation, being performed in a kind of bhzzard by 

 lamplight, with the ship rolling heavily all the time, was 

 not a great success. We slacked out 1140 fathoms but 

 obtained no bottom, so hove in again as the wind was 

 coming away in fierce squalls from the south-west. I 

 found that we were setting fast to leeward, so decided to 

 continue our voyage. 



" At noon on June 17 we were up by dead reckoning 

 to the position of Dougherty Island, as given by Captain 

 Dougherty, but as the weather was overcast could not be 

 sure of our position. Captain Keates places the island in 

 the same latitude thirty-four miles further east. I there- 

 fore continued eastward on the parallel over this position 

 (by dead reckoning) . As it was now dark and the weather 

 moderate, I stood back again to the westward, hoping to 

 get sights at daylight and did so. Good star observations 

 were confirmed at noon, when the island, according to 

 Captain Dougherty's position, should have borne west 

 distance four miles. No land was in sight from the mast- 

 head in clear weather. I stood east again, and at 4 p.m., 

 when darkness was just setting in, the island according 

 to Captain Keates' position should have borne east four 

 miles ; nothing in sight. At 4.30 we pasised over this 

 position and continued eastward along the parallel of 

 59° 21' South, but saw no indication of land. It is just 

 here that we met with ice during our passage, and I am 

 inclined to think Dougherty Island has melted. The 

 darkness was sixteen hours out of the twenty- four; it 

 was, in fact, to quote from the ' Directory,' one long star- 

 less desolate night, a perpetual gloom which the sun seems 

 never to penetrate, and the conditions made a search of 

 this kind more or less doubtful. Although I will not say 

 these islands do not exist, I can with confidence say they 



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