ent,
and it took us some hours' hard work, using broken oar-blades for
shovels, to dig away the immense heap of frozen debris that the
unexpected slip of the accumulation on the top of the cliff had caused.
Really, if the avalanche had fallen when we were all inside and asleep,
perhaps not one of us would have escaped alive, as it must have been
many tons in weight!

We thought, from the continuation of the snowstorm, that we would have
to endure all the miseries of an antarctic winter; but, towards the
evening of the fourth day, the south-westerly gale gradually lost its
force, shifting round a bit more to the northwards. Strange to say,
although the wind now came from what, in our northern latitudes, we
esteem a colder quarter, it was ever so much warmer here, on account of
its passing over the warm pampas of the Plate before reaching us, the
effect of which soon became apparent in the melting of the snow on the
ground as rapidly as when a thaw takes place at home. Properly
speaking, however, the snow rather may be said to have dried up than
melted, for it was absorbed by the air, which was dry and bracing.

The flakes, that had up to now continued coming down without cessation,
also ceased to fall--much to our satisfaction, as I need hardly add;
for, albeit it is very nice to look out from a warm, well-furnished room
at the beautiful winter garb of Nature, and highly enjoyable to go out
snowballing, when you can leave it off and go indoors to a jolly fire
when you like, it was a very different matter to us now to experience
all the discomforts of those dreadful, icy, spongy, little feathery
nuisances penetrating beneath every loophole they could find entrance
to, in the apology for a tent that we had, and to have our clothing
sodden by it, our fire put out, and our blood congealed. Perhaps even
the most ardent snow-lover would lose his taste for the soft molecules
under such circumstances!

On the fifth day, the sun appeared again, when Captain Billings took
advantage of the opportunity for getting an observation as to our
position, using Mr Macdougall's sextant, his own and mine having gone
to the bottom when the long-boat was upset. The skipper, I may add, had
also to make use of the mate's watch--the chronometer that had been
brought from the ship having shared the fate of the other instruments,
standard compass and all having passed into the safe keeping of old
Neptune and his Tritons, who, if they cared a