Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/210

130 The evening was squally, with rain; but the wind still so favoured us, that we cleared the land before dark, and shaped our course for Auckland Island—distant between eight and nine hundred miles from Hobart Town.

The favouring breeze continued, and we carried all sail, the Terror keeping company with difficulty. Several beds of sea-weed were passed; and the albatross as well as several other kinds of petrel were seen in considerable numbers. The cloudy weather that prevailed during the nights, pointed out in my instructions for observing "falling stars," prevented our witnessing any of those remarkable exhibitions of almost regular periodical occurrence.

Being nearly calm at 9, we tried for soundings with six hundred fathoms of line, without success, and obtained the temperature at various depths: that of the surface being 51°; at 150 fathoms 49°.8; at 300 fathoms 48°; at 450 fathoms 46°.5, and at 600 fathoms 45°.6: the indices of the thermometer having been set to 51°, showed, on each occasion, they had passed through a stratum of water at the higher temperature of 52°.5, and certainly at a less depth than 100 fathoms; but a strong breeze arising from the eastward, prevented our ascertaining its depth and breadth with accuracy.

At noon we were in latitude 45°.33′ south, and longitude 152°.45′ east, and found we had been set by a current thirty miles S. 60° E., in two days: the wind after noon veered to the southward, and