ether; in other places,
there appeared partitions in the field, and a clear sea beyond it. However,
I did not think it safe to venture through, as the wind would not permit us
to return the same way that we must go in. Besides, as it blew strong, and
the weather at times was exceedingly foggy, it was the more necessary for
us to get clear of this loose ice, which is rather more dangerous than the
great islands. It was not such ice as is usually found in bays or rivers
and near shore; but such as breaks off from the islands, and may not
improperly be called parings of the large pieces, or the rubbish or
fragments which fall off when the great islands break loose from the place
where they are formed.

We had not stood long to the N.E. before we found ourselves embayed by the
ice, and were obliged to tack and stretch to the S.W., having the field,
or loose ice, to the south, and many huge islands to the north. After
standing two hours on this tack, the wind very luckily veering to the
westward, we tacked, stretched to the north, and soon got clear of the
loose ice; but not before we had received several hard knocks from the
larger pieces, which, with all our care, we could not avoid. After clearing
one danger we still had another to encounter; the weather remained foggy,
and many large islands lay in our way; so that we had to luff for one, and
bear up for another. One we were very near falling aboard of, and, if it
had happened, this circumstance would never have been related. These
difficulties, together with the improbability of finding land farther
south, and the impossibility of exploring it, on account of the ice, if we
should find any, determined me to get more to the north. At the time we
last tacked, we were in the longitude of 159 deg. 20' W., and in the latitude
of 66 deg. 0' S. Several penguins were seen on some of these islands, and a few
antarctic peterels on the wing.

We continued to stand to the north, with a fresh gale at west, attended
with thick snow showers, till eight o'clock in the evening, when the wind
abated, the sky began to clear up, and at six o'clock in the morning of the
16th it fell calm. Four hours after, it was succeeded by a breeze at N.E.
with which we stretched to the S.E., having thick hazy weather, with snow
showers, and all our rigging coated with ice. In the evening, we attempted
to take some up out of the sea, but were obliged to desist; the sea running
too high, and the pieces bei