Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/414

370 the surface 33°.5; in both cases the mean latitude being 56° 41′ S., and longitude 6° 5′ W.

At 6 the following day, being in the latitude of Bouvet Island, 54° 21′ S., and about three hundred miles west of its assigned position, our course was altered to true east; the number of bergs had greatly diminished, and having fine clear weather, we continued, throughout the night, under all sail.

During the next two days it blew a gale from the N.W., and for the first time we had rain instead of snow, the temperature having risen to 37. As we were now approaching Bouvet Island, we rounded to every night, lest we should either run upon, or pass it in the dark.

At noon, the 20th, we crossed the meridian of Greenwich, in latitude 54° 7′ S., and pursuing a true east course, were in longitude 2° 50′ E. the next day at noon. Many bergs of large size were seen during the last two days, and were the occasion of frequent false reports of land.

At 8 we were in latitude 54° 8′., and longitude 4° 36′ E.; only fifty-eight miles from the island, as placed on the Admiralty chart. We hove to for the night under a close-reefed main-top-sail, the sea running very high, and many bergs about us. Every two hours we tried for, but did not obtain soundings, with 400 fathoms.

At daylight we bore away before the gale, which had not abated in the smallest degree, and the sea had gained a mountainous height; the weather,