130 
CRTJLSE OF E.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
curiously shaped arch, about 100 feet wide, worn 
through the middle of it. On getting clear, a 
southerly course was shaped along the land. 
Feb. 1 st . — With a capital breeze we proceed on 
our course, rapidly passing the land and some of our 
familiar landmarks of the preceding three weeks— 
Mount Ross, Mount Campbell, Wyville Thomson, 
and Crozier ranges, all snow-topped and glistening 
in the morning sun. At noon we were off Cape 
George, and an hour later we had reached the most 
southern extremity of this isle of desolation, wdiich 
was named Cape Challenger. A fair wind had 
sprung up, and away we went farther south to the 
Heard Islands. On our passage, sounded and dredged 
frequently; bottom from 200 to 400 fathoms. We 
crossed the track of the Australian clippers running 
by the great circle route, and it was in one of these 
vessels that Captain Heard, in 1853, first saw the 
islands we are bound to. For three days very light 
winds, with fog and rain, were experienced. This, 
added to the risk of meeting icebergs, during the 
misty and dark nights, made it anything but cheerful, 
for it is very questionable if these islands are cor- 
rectly laid down on the charts. 
Feb. bth . — The fog continued, and for two or three 
days previous, the cry of the penguin, and several 
patches of sea-weed, gave indications we were not 
far from land. The next morning during a lift in 
the fog it was seen right ahead, which we closed 
