A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

[7] "That water melted from the ice usually found floating in the sea is fresh and good, isno new discovery. The Hudson's Bay ships have long made use of it; and I have mentionedit, from my own experience, in the account of a voyage to Hudson's Bay." See Phil. Trans.vol. 60.--W. This is a solitary but most unexceptionable evidence. Mr Forster, in the articlebefore alluded to, has not failed to point out much more.--E.Having got on board this supply of water, and the Adventure about two- thirds as much (of whichwe stood in great need,) as we had once broke the ice, I did not doubt of getting more whenever wewere in want. I therefore without hesitation directed our course more to the south, with a gentle galeat N.W., attended, as usual, with snow showers. In the morning of the 11th, being then in the latitudeof 62° 44' S., longitude 37° E., the variation of the compass was 24° 10' W., and the followingmorning in the latitude of 64° 12' S., longitude 38° 14' E., by the mean of three compasses, it was nomore than 23° 52' W. In this situation we saw some penguins; and being near an island of ice fromwhich several pieces had broken, we hoisted out two boats, and took on board as much as filled allour empty casks, and the Adventure did the same. While this was doing, Mr Forster shot analbatross, whose plumage was of a colour between brown and dark-grey, the head and upper side ofthe wings rather inclining to black, and it had white eye-brows. We began to see these birds aboutthe time of our first falling in with the ice islands; and some have accompanied us ever since. These,and the dark-brown sort with a yellow bill, were the only albatrosses that had not now forsaken us.At four o'clock p.m. we hoisted in the boats, and made sail to the S.E., with a gentle breeze at S. byW., attended with showers of snow.On the 13th, at two o'clock a. m. it fell calm. Of this we took the opportunity to hoist out a boat, totry the current, which we found to set N.W. near one-third of a mile an hour. At the time of tryingthe current, a Fahrenheit's thermometer was immerged in the sea 100 fathoms below its surface,where it remained twenty minutes. When it came up, the mercury stood at 32, which is the freezingpoint. Some little time after, being exposed to the surface of the sea, it rose to 33-1/2, and in theopen air to 36. The calm continued till five o'clock in the evening, when it was succeeded by a lightbreeze from the S. and S.E., with which we stood to the N.E. with all our sails set.Though the weather continued fair, the sky, as usual, was clouded. However, at nine o'clock the nextmorning, it was clear; and we were enabled to observe several distances between the sun and moon.The mean result of which gave 39° 30' 30" E. longitude. Mr Kendal's watch at the same time gave38° 27' 45" which is 1° 2' 45" W. of the observations; whereas, on the 3d instant, it was half a degreeE. of them.In the evening I found the variation by the mean of azimuths takenwithGregory's compass to be 28° 14' 0"By the mean of six azimuths by one of DrKnight's 28 32 0And by another of Dr Knight's 28 34 0Our latitude at this time was 63° 57', longitude 39° 38-1/2"The succeeding morning, the 15th, being then in latitude 63° 33'S., thelongitude was observed by the following persons, viz.