Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/176

98 her, although we had purposely kept under moderate sail, to our great inconvenience, the ship rolling heavily in consequence of not having sufficient sail to steady her. Towards noon she closed with us, and continued to keep better company until the increasing gale reduced our sails to the close-reefed main topsail and foresail, which had now become necessary to keep the ship before the high following sea, when, owing to the great difficulty they had in steering her, we passed ahead, and her light was only dimly seen during the early part of the afternoon. The gale continued all night with a heavy cross sea: there was much lightning to the eastward; meteors in great numbers were seen darting about in all directions, and the whole aspect of the sky proclaimed a convulsion or disturbance of the atmosphere of an unusual character; the barometer descended rapidly, and at 4 stood 28.88.

For several hours the Terror had ceased to answer our night signals, and when day broke we could not see any thing of her. At this time, the sea having become more regular, we hauled the fore-sail up, and rounded to under a close-reefed main-topsail, to enable her to rejoin, supposing that she had broached to during the night, or that they had found it impossible or imprudent to scud before the gale. We remained hove to as long as daylight lasted, when we gave up all expectation of again meeting her until our arrival at the next