Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/451

Rh and discomfort and cold to you, your vessels and their crews.

"I was very fortunate in the weather the greater part of the time; and indeed altogether I was scarcely a day without some observation, (except during the gales, of which we had three, occupying about eight days), and generally half a dozen.

"My time for six weeks was passed on deck, and having all daylight, I, of course, had constant employment, and with the many assistants, I could make rapid progress: and you will find that no opportunity ought to be lost in this navigation, if one is to do any thing. One's ship is in constant danger, and the Vincennes, a first-class sloop of seven hundred and eighty tons, it requires all the foresight and activity one is possessed of to look out for her.

"I consider that I have had a most providential escape, and if this ship had not been enabled to do every thing but talk, I should not have been where I now am; but she had inspired me with so much confidence among the coral reefs last summer, that I could put faith in her doing her duty.

"I should have mentioned that in 1838 and 1839 I went south in the brig Porpoise, in order to trace Palmer's Land on its eastern side, (but too late for any trial to reach high latitudes), and hoping that the lateness of the season would enable me to run some distance along it. I got within three miles of the coast, and saw it trending to the south-south-east about thirty miles; but it was so blocked up with ice as to render it impossible to get through; and after other unsuccessful attempts to the south-eastward to get in with the land, I concluded to visit some of the South Shetlands: we had but one day in which we got observations to be relied upon out of ten. If I had been earlier in the season, I should have followed Weddell's track, or coasted the ice of Palmer's Land as far as it could be done. I firmly believe it may be done in favourable seasons, notwithstanding what the Frenchmen may say to the