that that ice joined to land.  The probability was however now greatly lessened, if not entirely set aside; for the space between the northern edge of the ice, along which we sailed, and our route to the west, when south of it, no where exceeded 100 leagues, and in some places not 60.  The clear weather continued no longer than three o’clock the next morning, when it was succeeded by a thick fog, sleet, and snow.  The wind also veered to N.E. and blew a fresh gale, with which we stood to S.E.  It increased in such a manner, that before noon we were brought under close-reefed top-sails.  The wind continued to veer to the north, at last fixed at N.W., and was attended with intervals of clear weather.

Our course was E. 1/4 N., till noon the next day, when we were in the latitude of 59 deg. 2’ S., and nearly under the same meridian as we were when we fell in with the last field of ice, five days before; so that had it remained in the same situation, we must now have been in the middle of it, whereas we did not so much as see any.  We cannot suppose that so large a float of ice as this was, could be destroyed in so short a time.  It therefore must have drifted to the northward:  and this makes it probable that there is no land under this meridian, between the latitude of 55 deg. and 59 deg., where we had supposed some to lie, as mentioned above.

As we were now only sailing over a part of the sea where we had been before, I directed the course E.S.E. in order to get more to the south.  We had the advantage of a fresh gale, and the disadvantage of a thick fog; much snow and sleet, which, as usual, froze on our rigging as it fell; so that every rope was covered with the finest transparent ice I ever saw.  This afforded an agreeable sight enough to the eye, but conveyed to the mind an idea of coldness, much greater than it really was; for the weather was rather milder then it had been for some time past, and the sea less encumbered with ice.  But the worst was, the ice so clogged the rigging, sails, and blocks, as to make them exceedingly bad to handle.  Our people, however, surmounted those difficulties with a steady perseverance, and withstood this intense cold much better than I expected.

We continued to steer to the E.S.E. with a fresh gale at N.W. attended with snow and sleet, till the 8th, when we were in the latitude of 61 deg. 12’ S., longitude 31 deg. 47’ E. In the afternoon we passed more ice islands than we had seen for several days.  Indeed they were now so familiar to us, that they were often passed unnoticed; but more generally unseen on account of the thick weather.  At nine o’clock in the evening, we came to one, which had a quantity of loose ice about it.  As the wind was moderate, and the weather tolerably fair, we shortened sail, and stood on and off, with a view of taking some on board on the return of light.  But at four o’clock in the morning, finding ourselves to leeward of this ice, we bore down to an island to leeward of us; there being about it some loose ice, part of which we saw break off.  There we brought-to; hoisted out three boats; and in about five or six hours, took up as much ice as yielded fifteen tons of good fresh water.  The pieces we took up were hard, and solid as a rock; some of them were so large, that we were obliged to break them with pick-axes before they could be taken into the boats.