nd that much damage had been done to our
rigging and deck-gear. This made it necessary for us to effect repairs,
and while so engaged we continued to run before the wind to the south.
As we proceeded, the cold became intense, while the wind gradually
decreased. One morning, at sunrise, a snow-covered land rose before our
astonished eyes. The sun shining upon it produced an effect which, for
beauty, I had never seen, equalled. Immense ranges of mountains rose
from a flat surface, their summits lost in fleecy clouds, while from
one of the mountain tops, incredible as it may appear, belched smoke
and fire as from the crater of an active volcano. It may well be
believed with what astonishment we beheld a burning mountain in the
midst of snow and ice. We coasted for some distance along the shore of
this new continent, which formed an ice barrier rising in a long
perpendicular line from the sea, making a landing impossible.

When the repairs to our ship had been effected, we hauled our wind, and
stood away northward, when we found ourselves surrounded by masses of
floating ice. In no record of any voyage that Hartog or I knew of is
any mention made of this phenomenon, so we concluded we were the first
to see it. The farther we went the more numerous became the icebergs,
and the more difficult the navigation owing to fogs and mists. The
whole surface of the water as far as the eye could reach was covered by
dense masses of ice, and had not the breeze freshened so that we were
able to avoid the ice pack, we might never have made our way to the
open sea. Some of the icebergs were beautifully formed, and the
countless prisms of which they were composed glowed in the sun's rays
with the delicate colour of the rainbow.

Next day the wind had fallen to a calm, and we rode upon a sea of
glass. We had left the pack ice, but before us stretched an island of
such extent that the end of it could not be seen. This island rose to
the height of twenty feet. It was perfectly flat, with steep,
perpendicular sides, which made it inaccessible to man. From the
masthead, however, it was possible to observe its surface, which we saw
to be covered by a vast number of penguins, so we knew a landing must
be available somewhere, for these birds are wingless. This island was
composed entirely of ice, it being, as Hartog reckoned, a glacier which
had broken off from the main continent into the sea. It was drifting
north, and would gradually melt in the