6 oo

CAPTAIN COOK’S SECOND VOYAGE.

account it was porus, and imbibed a good deal of fait water : but this drained off, afterlying awhile on the deck, and the water then yielded was freffi. They continued toftretch to the eaft, with a cold northerly wind, attended with a thick fog, fnow, andfleet, that decorated all their rigging with icicles.

On the 2<i ft, they very fuddenly got in amongfl a duller of very large ice iflands,and a vaft quantity of loofe pieces; and as the fog was exceedingly thick, it was withthe utmoft difficulty they wore clear of them.

On the 23d, the wind being pretty moderate, and the fea fmooth, they brought-to, atthe outer edge of the ice, hoifted out two boats, and fent to take fome up. The fnovvfroze to the rigging as it fell, making the ropes like wires, and the fails like boards orplates of metal.

While they were taking up ice, they got two of the antarctic peterels. They areabout the fize of a large pigeon ; the feathers of the head, back, and part of the upperfide of the wings, are of a light brown ; the belly and under fide of the vings white;the tail feathers are alfo white, but tipped with brown. Thefe birds are fuller of fea-thers than any they had hitherto feen; fuch'care has nature taken to clothe thermfuitable to the climate in which they live. They alfo faw a very large feal, which keptplaying about for fome time. One of their people who had been at Greenland , called ita fea-horfe ; but every one elfe who faw it, took it for what it really was.

In the morning of the 26th, the whole fea was in a manner covered with ice, 2 00large iflands and upwards being feen within the compafs of four or five miles.

On the 30th, feveral whales where feen playing about the fhip, but very few birds >iflands of ice in plenty.

On the 30th of January, 1774, at four o’clock in the morning, they perceived theclouds, over the horizon to the fouth, to be of an unufual fnow-white brightnefs, whichthey knew denounced their approach to field-ice. Soon after, it was feen from thetop-mafi-head ; and at eight o’clock, they were clofe to its edge.

It extended eaft and weft, far beyond the reach of their fight. In the fituation theywere in, juft the fouthern half of the horizon was illuminated by the rays of light re-flected from the ice, to a confiderable height. Ninety-feven ice-hills were diftinflly fe eflwithin the field, befide thofe on the outfide; many of them very large, and looking hk ea ridge of mountains, rifing one above another till they were loft in the clouds. Theouter or northern edge of this immenfe field was compofed of loofe or broken ice clofepacked together, fo that it was not poffible for any thing to enter it. This was abouta mile broad ; within which was folid ice in one continued compact body. It wasrather low and flat (except the hills}, but feemed to increafe in height to the fouth > 111which direction it extended beyond their fight. Such mountains of ice as thefe, were,Captain Cook believes, never feen in the Greenland feas; at lead, not that he ever hearor read of; lo that he cannot draw a comparifon between the ice here and there.

'I he captain fays, “ I will not fay it was impoffible any where to get farther to thefouth ; but the attempting it would have been a dangerous and ralh enterprize,what, I believe no man in my fituation would have thought of. I, who had ambitionnot only to go farther than any one had been before, but as far as it was poffible for tutmto go, was not forry at meeting with this interruption ; as it in fome meafure relievedus; at lead, ffiortened the dangers and hardlhips infeparable from the navigation of thefouthern polar regions. Since therefore we could not proceed one inch farther to thefouth, no other reafon need be affigned for my tacking and Handing back to the north*

. The captain now came to a refolution to proceed to the north, and to fpend the eniu-■ m S winter within the tropic, if he met with no employment before he came there, ^