Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/256

170 we were compelled to shorten sail and keep close to the wind during the night, being amongst a great many bergs, which we could not see until almost touching them, and expecting also that the main pack was not far distant: there was also a heavy swell amongst the bergs, which rendered our situation one of no small anxiety. The roar of the waves against their precipitous faces was generally the first knowledge we had of our proximity to them.

The next morning, at 7, we bore away to the southward, the wind having changed to the westward, with more favourable weather. The bergs and loose pieces of ice became gradually less numerous, so that throughout the day we seldom had more than ten or twelve of the former in sight at a time, and generally not so many.

Soon after noon we crossed the track of the Russian navigator, Bellinghausen, in lat. 64° 38′ S. and long. 173° 10′ E.; and, being becalmed at 2, we had a good opportunity of trying for deep soundings. Five thousand fathoms of line had been prepared for the purpose, but only one thousand five hundred and sixty fathoms had run off the reel when the weight struck the bottom. The temperature at the surface was 31°, at one hundred and fifty fathoms 35°.2, at three hundred fathoms 37°.2, at four hundred fathoms 38°.8, and at six hundred fathoms 39°.8. I regretted that the thermometers constructed to sustain the pressure at a great depth, which I had written to England for, had not arrived at Hobart