Five tolerably fine days had now succeeded one another.  This, besides giving us an opportunity to make the preceding observations, was very serviceable to us on many other accounts, and came at a very seasonable time.  For, having on board a good quantity of fresh water, or ice, which was the same thing, the people were enabled to wash and dry their clothes and linen; a care that can never be enough attended to in all long voyages.  The winds during this time blew in gentle gales, and the weather was mild.  Yet the mercury in the thermometer never rose above 36; and was frequently as low as the freezing point.

In the afternoon having but little wind, I brought-to under an island of ice, and sent a boat to take up some.  In the evening the wind freshened at east, and was attended with snow showers and thick hazy weather, which continued great part of the 16th.  As we met with little ice, I stood to the south, close hauled; and at six o’clock in the evening, being in the latitude of 64 deg. 56’ S., longitude 39 deg. 35’ E. I found the variation by Gregory’s compass to be 26 deg. 41’ W. At this time the motion of the ship was so great that I could by no means observe with any of Dr Knight’s compasses.

As the wind remained invariably fixed at E. and E. by S., I continued to stand to the south; and on the 17th, between eleven and twelve o’clock, we crossed the Antarctic Circle in the longitude of 39 deg. 35’ E., for at noon we were by observation in the latitude of 66 deg. 36’ 30” S. The weather was now become tolerably clear, so that we could see several leagues round us; and yet we had only seen one island of ice since the morning.  But about four p.m. as we were steering to the south, we observed the whole sea in a manner covered with ice, from the direction of S.E., round by the S. to W.

In this space, thirty-eight ice islands, great and small, were seen, besides loose ice in abundance, so that we were obliged to luff for one piece, and bear up for another, and as we continued to advance to the south, it increased in such a manner, that at three quarters past six o’clock, being then in the latitude of 67 deg. 15’ S., we could proceed no farther; the ice being entirely closed to the south, in the whole extent from E. to W.S.W., without the least appearance of any opening.  This immense field was composed of different kinds of ice; such as high hills, loose or broken pieces packed close together, and what, I think, Greenlandmen call field-ice.  A float of this kind of ice lay to the S.E. of us, of such extent, that I could see no end to it from the mast-head.  It was sixteen or eighteen feet high at least; and appeared of a pretty equal height and surface.  Here we saw many whales playing about the ice, and for two days before had seen several flocks of the brown and white pintadoes, which we named Antarctic peterels, because they seem to be natives of that region.  They are, undoubtedly, of the peterel tribe; are in every respect shaped like the