In The Afternoon, We Were Favoured
With A Sight Of The Moon, Whose Face We Had Seen But Once Since We Left The
Cape Of Good Hope.
By this a judgment may be formed of the sort of weather
we had since we left that place.
We did not fail to seize the opportunity
to make several observations of the sun and moon. The longitude deduced
from it was 9 deg. 34' 30" E. Mr Kendal's watch, at the same time, giving 10 deg.
6' E., and the latitude was 58 deg. 53' 30" S.
This longitude is nearly the same that is assigned to Cape Circumcision;
and at the going down of the sun we were about ninety-five leagues to the
south of the latitude it is said to lie in. At this time the weather was so
clear, that we might have seen land at fourteen or fifteen leagues
distance. It is, therefore very probable, that what Bouvet took for land,
was nothing but mountains of ice, surrounded by loose or field-ice. We
ourselves were undoubtedly deceived by the ice-hills, the day we first fell
in with the field-ice. Nor was it an improbable conjecture, that that ice
joined to land. The probability was however now greatly lessened, if not
entirely set aside; for the space between the northern edge of the ice,
along which we sailed, and our route to the west, when south of it, no
where exceeded 100 leagues, and in some places not 60. The clear weather
continued no longer than three o'clock the next morning, when it was
succeeded by a thick fog, sleet, and snow. The wind also veered to N.E. and
blew a fresh gale, with which we stood to S.E. It increased in such a
manner, that before noon we were brought under close-reefed top-sails. The
wind continued to veer to the north, at last fixed at N.W., and was
attended with intervals of clear weather.
Our course was E. 1/4 N., till noon the next day, when we were in the
latitude of 59 deg. 2' S., and nearly under the same meridian as we were when
we fell in with the last field of ice, five days before; so that had it
remained in the same situation, we must now have been in the middle of it,
whereas we did not so much as see any. We cannot suppose that so large a
float of ice as this was, could be destroyed in so short a time. It
therefore must have drifted to the northward: and this makes it probable
that there is no land under this meridian, between the latitude of 55 deg. and
59 deg., where we had supposed some to lie, as mentioned above.
As we were now only sailing over a part of the sea where we had been
before, I directed the course E.S.E. in order to get more to the south.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 49 of 461
Words from 24792 to 25292
of 239428
