Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/117

] other cause than that of the air falling to 52° as the wind shifted to the southward.

We were now south of that stream, which, taking the direction of the Natal coast, is known to extend far out to sea; and had got into a counter current, setting to the eastward at the rate, on an average of several days, of about a mile an hour. We had no soundings to-day with six-hundred fathoms, the temperature at that depth being 43°.8.

In the course of the past week a change of thirty degrees of temperature, both of the air and of the sea, took place, which, to those who had passed the previous months in a tropical climate, was likely to be productive of serious injury to their health, unless carefully guarded against. This alteration of climate in so short a time was at first very sensibly felt, and it was necessary to issue positive regulations about the clothing of our people, amongst whom severe colds were beginning to make their appearance.

Running before a strong westerly wind, and rapidly nearing Prince Edward's Island, from which at noon we were distant only about twenty miles, we were not surprised to see many penguins; but the weather was so hazy, that we could not perceive the land until we found ourselves within two or three miles of its southern point. Sailing close along its south-eastern side, and at about one mile south of the East Cape, we sounded in eighty-six fathoms, fine sand, coral, and corallines. This line of coast is composed of black, perpendicular, volcanic