in the least increased by being
alone." They were quite ready to go, "wherever I might think proper to
lead them." Even Mr. Forster had to admit at a little later date, that:

"notwithstanding the constant perils to which our course exposed us, in
this unexplored ocean, our ship's company were far from being so uneasy
as might have been expected."

ARMOUR OF ICE.

On 6th December, at 8.30 A.M., they reckoned they were "at the Antipodes
to our friends in London, consequently as far removed from them as
possible." Here a swell coming from the south-west showed there was no
great body of land in that direction, except at a considerable distance.
The first ice was seen on 12th December in 62 degrees 10 minutes South,
and on the 15th, in 66 degrees South, they were obliged to edge away
north as they were surrounded by large quantities of loose ice, and it
was very foggy. Working up to between 64 and 65 degrees, they again
headed east still hampered by ice and fog, but in a few days the weather
improved a little, and they recovered the Antarctic Circle, and reached
67 degrees 31 minutes South on the 23rd, the highest south latitude
hitherto attained. The rigging was so coated with ice that it was
difficult to work the ship, and Cook altered his course to the
north-east. Marra says, under 18th December:

"Icicles frequently hung to the noses of the men, more than an inch
long...the men, cased in frozen snow, as if clad in armour, where the
running rigging has been so enlarged by frozen sleet as hardly to be
grasped by the largest hand...yet, under all these hardships, the men
cheerful over their grog, and not a man sick, but of old scars."

Cook says that some of the men suffered from fever brought on by the
unavoidable exposure to cold and wet, but it was slight, and "happily
yielded to the simplest remedies." The ship was so surrounded by masses
of ice as to cause some apprehension, but by taking advantage of every
breath of air the danger was averted. Christmas Day was passed in
constant watchfulness.

"We were fortunate in having continual daylight, and clear weather, for
had it been foggy as on some of the preceding days, nothing less than a
miracle could have saved us from being dashed to pieces."

On 7th January 1774, five very successful observations gave the mean
longitude as 123 degrees 21 minutes West, the watch gave it 123 degrees
44 minutes, and the dead reckoning as 123 degrees 39 minutes. Cook
signifies