Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/269

] trade winds of the equatorial regions in the opposite direction. The bottle in its course will have travelled nearly along the track of our ships in 1840, past the Crozet and Kerguelen Islands, on our way to Van Diemen's Land, where we found, on an average, a daily current of fifteen miles carrying us to the eastward during the months of April, July, and August. It would be most interesting to ascertain what had become of the other bottles that were thrown overboard at the same time with that found near Cape Liptrap.

The wind veered to the southward during the night, and moderated considerably before daylight the next morning. At 5 Beauchêne Island was seen bearing N.N.E., directly a-head of us, and, the weather being fine, we sailed close past it. Even this desolate rock was an object of interest to us, after having been out of sight of land for a period of one hundred and thirty-six days.

At noon, the Sea Lion Islands were visible from the maintop with the long reef of rocks and breakers to the eastward of them. The wind fell light in the course of the afternoon, and before midnight it was perfectly calm. We were in soundings all night varying from thirty-five to sixty fathoms, very irregularly, on a bottom of coarse sand and shells. At 5 a breeze sprang up from the eastward, against which we had to beat for several hours before we could weather Cape Pembroke,