Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/115

] Although we were not above forty miles from yesterday's position, we had no soundings with six hundred fathoms, so suddenly does the depth of water increase, to the south, upon leaving the bank.

The variation of the compass was observed to have increased to 30° W. It fell calm towards midnight, and by our observations at noon we found that we had been carried away by a current above thirty miles to the southward of our supposed position, and the following day, to the south-westward, above fifty miles. We had some rain during the night, and flashes of lightning were seen to the south-eastward. Steering in that direction we approached the storm, and shortly got into the midst of the heaviest rain I ever witnessed. It came down literally in sheets of water, accompanied by very violent squalls from various quarters, alternately with perfect, but almost momentary, calms. The temperature of the rain which fell being 61° brought down that of the air from 67° to 64°, whilst the surface of the sea rose to 73°.5 from 71°.

Heavy thunder and the most vivid lightning occurred during this great fall of water, which lasted without intermission for more than ten hours, and it required the utmost vigilance in the officers and crew to manœuvre the ship during the rapid changes both in the strength and direction of the wind, and the extraordinary bubbling of the sea produced by these fierce contending gusts. But before noon it blew fresh from the eastward,