tended with snow and sleet till the evening. Then the weather became
fair, the sky cleared up, and the night was remarkably pleasant, as well as
the morning of the next day; which, for the brightness of the sky, and
serenity and mildness of the weather, gave place to none we had seen since
we left the Cape of Good Hope. It was such as is little known in this sea;
and to make it still more agreeable, we had not one island of ice in sight.
The mercury in the thermometer rose to 40. Mr Wales and the master made
some observations of the moon and stars, which satisfied us, that, when our
latitude was 59 deg. 44', our longitude was 121 deg. 9'. At three o'clock in the
afternoon, the calm was succeeded by a breeze at S.E. The sky, at the same
time, was suddenly obscured, and seemed to presage an approaching storm,
which accordingly happened. For, in the evening, the wind shifted to south,
blew in squalls, attended with sleet and rain, and a prodigious high sea.
Having nothing to take care of but ourselves, we kept two or three points
from the wind, and run at a good rate to the E.N.E. under our two courses,
and close-reefed topsails.

The gale continued till the evening of the 10th. Then it abated; the wind
shifted to the westward; and we had fair weather, and but little wind,
during the night; attended with a sharp frost. The next morning, being in
the latitude of 57 deg. 56', longitude 130 deg., the wind shifted to N.E., and blew
a fresh gale, with which we stood S.E., having frequent showers of snow and
sleet, and a long hollow swell from S.S.E. and S.E. by S. This swell did
not go down till two days after the wind which raised it had not only
ceased to blow, but had shifted, and blown fresh at opposite points, good
part of the time. Whoever attentively considers this, must conclude, that
there can be no land to the south, but what must be at a great distance.

Notwithstanding so little was to be expected in that quarter, we continued
to stand to the south till three o'clock in the morning of the 12th, when
we were stopped by a calm; being then in the latitude of 58 deg. 56' S.,
longitude 131 deg. 26' E. After a few hours calm, a breeze sprung up at west,
with which we steered east. The S.S.E. swell having gone down, was
succeeded by another from N.W. by W. The weather continued mild all this
day, and the mercury rose to 39-1/2. In the evening it fell calm, and
continued so till three o'clock in the morning of the 13th, when