i 3 4 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
the fog. The constant heaving-to when the weather be- 
came too thick and the manoeuvring to avoid floating ice 
made the progress “ very teasing and unprofitable.” By 
the 27th the ships had reached 64° 58' S. in 39 0 40' W. 
looking for new islands which might harbour seals; but 
finding none they stood northward in the same longitude 
and then, wishing to avoid known land and the tracks 
of former expeditions, turned back to the southeast. A 
reward of £10 was offered to the man who first saw land 
and many were the disappointments which resulted, for 
fog-banks, icebergs and once even a dead and much in- 
flated whale gave rise to claims which a second glance 
disallowed. 
Weddell refers to the extremely narrow escape which 
Cook had of discovering both the South Orkneys and the 
South Shetlands ; but nothing in the history of marine ex- 
ploration is more remarkable than the way in which ships 
looking for new land have passed just out of sight of 
great masses and archipelagoes, while ordinary seafarers 
hoping for nothing but a clear sea-way have lighted upon 
islands and even continents which to them were mere 
obstacles. On February 4th, being then within 100 miles 
of Sandwich Land, Weddell proposed to Brisbane to 
stand as far south as they could go in the hope of finding 
some entirely unknown land, and that officer readily as- 
senting the two little vessels set off on the most interest- 
ing exploit of the voyage. Everything possible on such 
small craft was done for the comfort of the men, but the 
decks were always wet and the sailors suffered badly from 
“ colds, agues and rheumatism.” As to diet Weddell 
says: 
I had allowed them three wine-glasses of rum a day 
per man, since we were in those seas ; and their allow- 
