Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/120

48 near to see any creeks or bays; but I was afterwards told that sealers sometimes anchor at a place called Cave Bay, on its east side, in lat. 46° 40′ S. with the N.E. point bearing N.E. by E.; the Cave, W.N.W; and Mary's Point, S.W. ½ S. in eight to ten fathoms water. The larger island, though discovered by a French navigator in 1772, was named by Captain Cook, some years afterwards, Prince Edward's Island, in honour of the late Duke of Kent, the father of our most gracious Queen.

The westerly gale continued throughout the 22d and 23d, but early on the 24th it veered to the north, and increased to a violent storm, with its usual accompaniment of heavy rain, fortunately of only a few hours' duration, for the heavy cross sea the change of wind occasioned washed away our hammock nettings, and swept several things off our decks: towards evening the wind moderated, and backed round to the westward. During this run we passed many large patches of sea-weed, which had probably been torn from the shores of Prince Edward's Island, and as we did not see any as we approached it from the westward, it would seem to show that a westerly current prevails in these parts of the ocean, although, from the accordance of the dead reckoning with our observations, it is probably of inconsiderable strength.

A comparatively fine day: we continued to pass many large patches of sea-weed, and although arrived near the position on our charts of Crozet's group of islands, we could see nothing of them, and