ement, proved to be full fifteen feet in his
greatest length. His wool was perfectly white, and very coarse, curling
tightly. The eyes were of a blood red, and larger than those of the
Arctic bear, the snout also more rounded, rather resembling the snout
of the bulldog. The meat was tender, but excessively rank and fishy,
although the men devoured it with avidity, and declared it excellent
eating.

Scarcely had we got our prize alongside, when the man at the masthead
gave the joyful shout of "land on the starboard bow!" All hands were
now upon the alert, and, a breeze springing up very opportunely from the
northward and eastward, we were soon close in with the coast. It
proved to be a low rocky islet, of about a league in circumference, and
altogether destitute of vegetation, if we except a species of prickly
pear. In approaching it from the northward, a singular ledge of rock is
seen projecting into the sea, and bearing a strong resemblance to corded
bales of cotton. Around this ledge to the westward is a small bay, at
the bottom of which our boats effected a convenient landing.

It did not take us long to explore every portion of the island, but,
with one exception, we found nothing worthy of our observation. In the
southern extremity, we picked up near the shore, half buried in a pile
of loose stones, a piece of wood, which seemed to have formed the prow
of a canoe. There had been evidently some attempt at carving upon it,
and Captain Guy fancied that he made out the figure of a tortoise, but
the resemblance did not strike me very forcibly. Besides this prow, if
such it were, we found no other token that any living creature had ever
been here before. Around the coast we discovered occasional small floes
of ice--but these were very few. The exact situation of the islet (to
which Captain Guy gave the name of Bennet's Islet, in honour of his
partner in the ownership of the schooner) is 82 degrees 50' S. latitude,
42 degrees 20' W. longitude.

We had now advanced to the southward more than eight degrees farther
than any previous navigators, and the sea still lay perfectly open
before us. We found, too, that the variation uniformly decreased as we
proceeded, and, what was still more surprising, that the temperature
of the air, and latterly of the water, became milder. The weather might
even be called pleasant, and we had a steady but very gentle breeze
always from some northern point of the compass. The sky was usually