We now began to meet with ice islands more frequently than before; and, in the latitude of 69 deg. 38’ S., longitude 108 deg. 12’ W., we fell in with a field of loose ice.  As we began to be in want of water, I hoisted out two boats and took up as much as yielded about ten tons.  This was cold work, but it was now familiar to us.  As soon as we had done, we hoisted in the boats, and afterwards made short boards over that part of the sea we had in some measure made ourselves acquainted with.  For we had now so thick a fog, that we could not see two hundred yards round us; and as we knew not the extent of the loose ice, I durst not steer to the south till we had clear weather.  Thus we spent the night, or rather that part of twenty-four hours which answered to night; for we had no darkness but what was occasioned by fogs.

At four o’clock in the morning of the 29th, the fog began to clear away; and the day becoming clear and serene, we again steered to the south with a gentle gale at N.E. and N.N.E.  The variation was found to be 22 deg. 41’ E. This was in the latitude of 69 deg. 45’ S., longitude 108 deg. 5’ W.; and, in the afternoon, being in the same longitude, and in the latitude of 70 deg. 23’ S., it was 24 deg. 31’ E. Soon after, the sky became clouded, and the air very cold.  We continued our course to the south, and passed a piece of weed covered with barnacles, which a brown albatross was picking off.  At ten o’clock, we passed a very large ice island; it was not less than three or four miles in circuit.  Several more being seen a-head, and the weather becoming foggy, we hauled the wind to the northward; but in less than two hours, the weather cleared up, and we again stood south.

On the 30th, at four o’clock in the morning, we perceived the clouds, over the horizon to the south, to be of an unusual snow-white brightness, which we knew denounced our approach to field-ice.  Soon after, it was seen from the top-mast-head; and at eight o’clock, we were close to its edge.  It extended east and west, far beyond the reach of our sight.  In the situation we were in, just the southern half of our horizon was illuminated, by the rays of light reflected from the ice, to a considerable height.  Ninety-seven ice hills were distinctly seen within the field, besides those on the outside; many of them very large, and looking like a ridge of mountains, rising one above another till they were lost in the clouds.  The outer or northern edge of this immense field, was composed of loose or broken ice close packed together, so that it was not possible for any thing to enter it.  This was about a mile broad, within which, was solid ice in one continued compact body.  It was rather low and flat (except the hills), but seemed to increase in height, as you traced it to the south; in which direction it extended beyond our sight.  Such mountains of ice as these, I believe, were never seen in the Greenland seas, at least, not that I ever heard or read of, so that we cannot draw a comparison between the ice here and there.