>>r Whale *hlp discovered. cm-TH vi> v rni'iCT; First ice i»Und* »cen. 



* Height of wait*. bUt * " hK;vi L KL Kutfis titorKc's. Island — Palmer* Lam\. 



pony, i (n passing the other vessels of the squadron, 

 wo received throe hearty cheers, which were duly 

 re l u rued. 



At Uie mouth of the harbour, Captain Hudson 

 and the few officers who had accompanied hb, took 

 their leave. 1 must own at that moment I felt 

 greatly ([(/pressed, for 1 was well aware that we had 

 many, very many dangers to encounter before meet- 

 ing again. Hut there is a feeling produced by the 

 kind of service on which we were engaged, that 

 gives a stout heart, braces it for meeting almost 

 every emergency that may happen, and causes one 

 to louk forward with hope to overcome the diihcul- 

 ties that may lie in the path. After a short lime 

 we sow the' Peacock and Flying-Fish under bail, 

 follow ing ua. 



The wind continued light, with fine weather, 

 until the afternoon. The whole Bcouery around 

 was viewed to great advantage, under a mild slate 

 of the atmosphere, taking away from it the usual 

 gloomy aspect which a sky, overcast and boisterous, 

 gives. A dense bank of cumuli in the south-west 

 foretold that we were not Jong to enjoy such mode- 

 rate weather. About -1 p.m. a heavy squall struck 

 us, which soon took us clear of the islands, on our 

 course to the southward, 



I in the 2Glh we discovered a sail, which proved 

 to be the whale-ship America, from New Zealand, 

 bound to New York, and afforded us an opportunity 

 of writing home, which we gladly availed ourselves 

 of. The master of the America informed me that 

 he had experienced constant heavy winds, and had 

 I hi ii thirty-rive days from New Zealand; that the 

 whip was very leaky, but having a full cargo of 

 three thousand eight hundred barrels of oil, he was 

 in great spirits. 1 have seldom seen at sea a more 

 uiicoiulii <] ami dirty set of mariners than his crew. 

 Ib>w thej preserve am tolerable state of health I 

 know nut ; and it is not at all surprising that the 

 ravages of scurvy should be felt on board of some 

 vessels belonging to the whaling Heel, if this is the 

 usual state in which they arc kept. 



After delivering our letters, we bore away to the 

 south-cast, the wind inclining to the north-west and 

 blowing heavy, with a high and remarkably regular 

 sen following. This afforded me an opportunity I 

 had long desired, for making observations to deter- 

 mine the height of the waves, together with their 

 width and velocity. It is obviously very difficult to 

 do this with correctness. I shall therefore state 

 the means which I adopted, in order that it maybe 

 perceived what reliance is to be placed on the 

 results. 



The Porpoise was directly abend of the Sea- 

 Cnll, and but two waves apart; the rate of sailing 

 was about eight knots an hour, both vessels being 

 apparently very steady. In heaving the log, I 

 found that the chip, in drawing in the line, was, 

 when on the top of the next wave astern, distant 

 by line three hundred and eighty feet, erjual to one 

 sixteenth of a mile, and the schooner being on the 

 next wave, was twice the distance, or one-eighth rj<* 

 a mile. The time occupied for a wave tu pass from 

 the schooner to the brig was thirteen seconds, 

 taking the. mean of many trials, from which none 

 varied more than a second and a half. This gave 

 about twenty-six and a half miles in an hour for 

 their apparent progressive motion. In order to 

 get their height, t took the opportunity when the 

 schooner was in the trough of the sea, and my eye 



on board the Porpoise in the horizon, to observe 

 When it cut the mast. 



This gave me ihirty-two feet. The waves ran 

 higher and more regular on this occasion than J 

 have seen them at any other time during the 

 cruise. 



We had many albatrosses hovering about, and at 

 times resting as it were immovable in the storm, 

 some gray petrels, and ( ape pigeons in numbers. 

 The weather becoming thick, and the temperature 

 of the water having fallen to 1)2 \ I deemed it pru- 

 dent to heave-to during the darkness. 



At daylight on the 1st of March we had .-now in 

 Hurries, and the lirsl ice-islands were made. They 

 excited much curiosity, and appeared to have been 

 a good deal worn, as though the. sea had been wash- 

 ing over them for some time. They were of small 

 size in comparison with those we afterwords saw, 

 but being unused to the sight, we thought them 

 magnificent At noun we made land, which proved 

 tube Ridley's Island. It was high, broken, and 

 rugged, w ith the top covered w ith snow. The rocks 

 had a basaltic appearance, and many were de- 

 tached from the main hotly of the island, with nu- 

 merous high pinnacles, very much worn by the sea. 

 The surf was too great to attempt a lauding for the 

 purpose of procuring specimens. As we closed in 

 with the land, we lowered a boat and tried the cur- 

 rent, which was found setting to the north-north- 

 west, two fathoms per hour. 



At ii p.m. wo had several ice-islands in sight, Cape 

 Melville bearing south- by-east (true). We now 

 had light winds from the south-south-west. 



The north foreland of King George's Island was 

 in sight, and found to be well placed on the charts. 

 The appearance of all this laud is volcanic; it is 

 from eight hundred to one thousand feet high. The 

 upper part is covered and the valleys filled with 

 snow of great depth, lie fore night we had several 

 i ubei- islands in sight, with many bergs and much 

 drift-ice. 



On the 2nd, at daylight, we made O'Briens and 

 Aspland'a Islands to the eastward, with mans ice- 

 islands, some of a tabular form, and from half a 

 mile to a mile in length. Through the fog and 

 mist we got a sight of Bridgeman's Island, and 

 stood for it, with the intention of landing on it. 

 Thu fog cleared oif as we approached it, and wc 

 could perceive distinctly the smoke issuing from its 

 aides. We made it in latitude b'2 3 Ob" S., and longi- 

 tude a? 0 10' W. 



This island is about six hundred feet high, and of 

 the shape of a flattened dome. 



On the 3rd w e tilled away at daylight, and stood 

 for Palmer's Land. The birds now had very much 

 increased, Capo pigeons, with the gray and black 

 petrel, and occasionally penguins, swimming about 

 us in all directions, uttering their discordant 

 screams: they seemed astonished at encountering 

 so unusual an object as a vt-sscl in these frozen 

 seas. At C !l rtlP" we made land, which I took to he 

 Mount Hope, the eastern point of Palmer's Land, 

 Hy 1\ a.m. we had penetrated among the numerous 

 icebergs, until we found it impossible to go further. 

 I have rarely seen a finer sight. The sea was lite- 

 rally studded with these beautiful masses, some of 

 pure white, others showing all the shades of the 

 opal, others emerald green, and occasionally here 

 and there some of a deep black, forming a strong 

 contrast to the pure white. Near to us, we disco- 



