Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/317

] Cape Pembroke, we hauled close to the wind under moderate sail during the night.

A storm came on soon after noon the next day, from the south-west, which continued with little intermission, and accompanied by snow and rain, but varying in direction between south and west. As we might have expected in such a tempestuous ocean, and at a period of the year corresponding with the boisterous month of March in our latitudes, we encountered during our passage from the Falkland Islands to Cape Horn very severe weather, the gales usually commencing in the south-west, veering to the west, and generally, as in the North Atlantic Ocean, ending in the north-west.

The birds met with in the greatest numbers were the Cape pigeon, grey petrel, sooty and black backed albatross, gigantic petrel, some penguins and a few tern; extensive patches of the two more common kinds of sea-weed were also frequently seen.

On the 16th, in latitude 54° 41′ S., and longitude 55° 12′ W., we obtained soundings in two hundred and eighty fathoms, on a bank of coarse black sand and small stones of volcanic origin; the shallowness of the water accounting for the short breaking which has always been remarked near this spot by former navigators, and was experienced by ourselves to our great discomfort. We were at this time distant above three hundred miles from Staten Island, and from Beauchêne Island, the