Volume Ii Part 12 (1/2)
On the 17th the wind continued veering, by little and little, to the south, till midnight, when it fixed at S.W. Being at this time in the lat.i.tude of 54 20' S., longitude 6 33' east, I steered east, having a prodigious high sea from the south, which a.s.sured us no land was near in that direction.
In the morning of the 18th, it ceased to snow; the weather became fair and clear; and we found the variation to be 18 44' west. At noon we were in the lat.i.tude of 54 25', longitude 8 46' east. I thought this a good lat.i.tude to keep in, to look for Cape Circ.u.mcision; because, if the land had ever so little extent in the direction of north and south, we could not miss seeing it, as the northern point is said to lie in 54.
We had yet a great swell from the south, so that I was now well a.s.sured it could only be an island, and it was of no consequence which side we fell in with. In the evening Mr Wales made several observations of the moon, and stars Regulus and Spica; the mean results, at four o'clock when the observations were made, for finding the time by the watch, gave 9 15' 20” east longitude. The watch at the same time gave 9 36' 45”.
Soon after the variation was found to be 13 10' west. It is nearly in this situation that Mr Bouvet had 1 east. I cannot suppose that the variation has altered so much since that time; but rather think he had made some mistake in his observations. That there could be none in ours was certain, from the uniformity for some time past. Besides, we found 12 8' west, variation, nearly under this meridian, in January 1773.
During the night the wind veered round by the N.W. to N.N.E. and blew a fresh gale.
At eight in the morning of the 19th, we saw the appearance of land in the direction of E. by S., or that of our course; but it proved a mere fog-bank, and soon after dispersed. We continued to steer E. by S. and S.E., till seven o'clock in the evening, when being in the lat.i.tude of 54 42' S., longitude 13 3' E., and the wind having veered to N.E., we tacked and stood to N.W. under close-reefed topsails and courses; having a very strong gale attended with snow-showers.
At four o'clock next morning, being in the lat.i.tude of 54 30' S., longitude 12 33'. east, we tacked and stretched to N.E. with a fresh gale at S.W., attended with snow-showers and sleet. At noon, being in the lat.i.tude of 54 8' S., longitude 12 59' E., with a fresh gale at W.
by N., and tolerably clear weather, we steered east till ten o'clock in the evening, when we brought-to, lest we might pa.s.s any land in the night, of which we however had not the least signs.
At day-break, having made sail, we bore away E., and at noon observed in lat.i.tude 54 16' S., longitude 16 13' east, which is 5 to the east of the longitude in which Cape Circ.u.mcision is said to lie; so that we began to think there was no such land in existence. I however continued to steer east, inclining a little to the south, till four o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, when we were in lat.i.tude 54 24' S., longitude 19 18' east.
We had now run down thirteen degrees of longitude in the very lat.i.tude a.s.signed for Bouvet's Land. I was therefore well a.s.sured that what he had seen could be nothing but an island of ice; for, if it had been land, it is hardly possible we could have missed it, though it were ever so small. Besides, from the time of leaving the southern lands, we had not met with the least signs of any other. But even suppose we had, it would have been no proof of the existence of Cape Circ.u.mcision; for I am well a.s.sured that neither seals nor penguins, nor any of the oceanic birds, are indubitable signs of the vicinity of land. I will allow that they are found on the coasts of all these southern lands; but are they not also to be found in all parts of the southern ocean? There are, however, some oceanic or aquatic birds which point out the vicinity of land; especially s.h.a.gs, which seldom go out of sight of it; and gannets, b.o.o.bies, and men-of-war birds, I believe, seldom go very far out to sea.
As we were now no more than two degrees of longitude front our route to the south, when we left the Cape of Good Hope, it was to no purpose to proceed any farther to the east under this parallel, knowing that no land could be there. But an opportunity now offering of clearing up some doubts of our having seen land farther to the south, I steered S.E. to get into the situation in which it was supposed to lie.
We continued this course till four o'clock the next morning, and then S.E. by E. and E.S.E., till eight in the evening, at which time we were in the lat.i.tude of 55 25' S., longitude 23 22' east, both deduced from observations made the same day; for, in the morning, the sky was clear at intervals, and afforded an opportunity to observe several distances of the sun and moon, which we had not been able to do for some time past, having had a constant succession of bad weather.
Having now run over the place where the land was supposed to lie, without seeing the least signs of any, it was no longer to be doubted but that the ice-islands had deceived us as well as Mr Bouvet. The wind by this time having veered to the north, and increased to a perfect storm, attended as usual with snow and sleet, we handed the top-sails and hauled up E.N.E. under the courses. During the night the wind abated, and veered to N.W., which enabled us to steer more to the north, having no business farther south.
CHAPTER VII.
_Heads of what has been done in the Voyage; with some Conjectures concerning the Formation of Ice-Islands; and an Account of our Proceedings till our Arrival at the Cape of Good Hope._
1775 February
I had now made the circuit of the southern ocean in a high lat.i.tude, and traversed it in such a manner as to leave not the least room for the possibility of there being a continent, unless near the Pole, and out of the reach of navigation. By twice visiting the tropical sea, I had not only settled the situation of some old discoveries, but made there many new ones, and left, I conceive, very little more to be done even in that part. Thus I flatter myself, that the intention of the voyage has, in every respect, been fully answered; the southern hemisphere sufficiently explored, and a final end put to the searching after a southern continent, which has, at times, ingrossed the attention of some of the maritime powers, for near two centuries past, and been a favourite theory amongst the geographers of all ages.
That there may be a continent, or large tract of land, near the Pole, I will not deny; on the contrary I am of opinion there is; and it is probable that we have seen a part of it. The excessive cold, the many islands and vast floats of ice, all tend to prove that there must be land to the south; and for my persuasion that this southern land must lie, or extend, farthest to the north opposite to the southern Atlantic and Indian oceans, I have already a.s.signed some reasons; to which I may add the greater degree of cold experienced by us in these seas, than in the southern Pacific ocean under the same parallels of lat.i.tude.
In this last ocean, the mercury in the thermometer seldom fell so low as the freezing point, till we were in 60 and upwards; whereas in the others, it fell as low in the lat.i.tude of 54. This was certainly owing to there being a greater quant.i.ty of ice, and to its extending farther to the north, in these two seas than in the south Pacific; and if ice be first formed at, or near land, of which I have no doubt, it will follow that the land also extends farther north.
The formation or coagulation of ice-islands has not, to my knowledge, been thoroughly investigated. Some have supposed them to be formed by the freezing of the water at the mouths of large rivers, or great cataracts, where they acc.u.mulate till they are broken off by their own weight. My observations will not allow me to acquiesce in this opinion; because we never found any of the ice which we took up incorporated with earth, or any of its produce, as I think it must have been, had it been coagulated in land-waters. It is a doubt with me, whether there be any rivers in these countries. It is certain, that we saw not a river, or stream of water, on all the coast of Georgia, nor on any of the southern lands. Nor did we ever see a stream of water run from any of the ice-islands. How are we then to suppose that there are large rivers? The valleys are covered, many fathoms deep, with everlasting snow; and, at the sea, they terminate in icy cliffs of vast height. It is here where the ice-islands are formed; not from streams of water, but from consolidated snow and sleet, which is almost continually falling or drifting down from the mountains, especially in the winter, when the frost must be intense. During that season, the ice-cliffs must so acc.u.mulate as to fill up all the bays, be they ever so large. This is a fact which cannot be doubted, as we have seen it so in summer. These cliffs acc.u.mulate by continual falls of snow, and what drifts from the mountains, till they are no longer able to support their own weight; and then large pieces break off, which we call ice-islands. Such as have a flat even surface, must be of the ice formed in the bays, and before the flat vallies; the others, which have a tapering unequal surface, must be formed on, or under, the side of a coast composed of pointed rocks and precipices, or some such uneven surface. For we cannot suppose that snow alone, as it falls, can form, on a plain surface, such as the sea, such a variety of high peaks and hills, as we saw on many of the ice-isles. It is certainly more reasonable to believe that they are formed on a coast whose surface is something similar to theirs. I have observed that all the ice-islands of any extent, and before they begin to break to pieces, are terminated by perpendicular cliffs of clear ice or frozen snow, always on one or more sides, but most generally all round. Many, and those of the largest size, which had a hilly and spiral surface, shewed a perpendicular cliff, or side, from the summit of the highest peak down to its base. This to me was a convincing proof, that these, as well as the flat isles, must have broken off from substances like themselves, that is, from some large tract of ice.
When I consider the vast quant.i.ty of ice we saw, and the vicinity of the places to the Pole where it is formed, and where the degrees of longitude are very small, I am led to believe that these ice-cliffs extend a good way into the sea, in some parts, especially in such as are sheltered from the violence of the winds. It may even be doubted if ever the wind is violent in the very high lat.i.tudes. And that the sea will freeze over, or the snow that falls upon it, which amounts to the same thing, we have instances in the northern hemisphere. The Baltic, the Gulph of St Laurence, the Straits of Belle-Isle, and many other equally large seas, are frequently frozen over in winter. Nor is this at all extraordinary, for we have found the degree of cold at the surface of the sea, even in summer, to be two degrees below the freezing point; consequently nothing kept it from freezing but the salt it contains, and the agitation of its surface. Whenever this last ceaseth in winter, when the frost is set in, and there comes a fall of snow, it will freeze on the surface as it falls, and in a few days, or perhaps in one night, form such a sheet of ice as will not be easily broken up. Thus a foundation will be laid for it to acc.u.mulate to any thickness by falls of snow, without its being at all necessary for the sea-water to freeze. It may be by this means these vast floats of low ice we find in the spring of the year are formed, and which, after they break up, are carried by the currents to the north. For, from all the observations I have been able to make, the currents every where, in the high lat.i.tudes, set to the north, or to the N.E. or N.W.; but we have very seldom found them considerable.
If this imperfect account of the formation of these extraordinary floating islands of ice, which is written wholly from my own observations, does not convey some useful hints to an abler pen, it will, however, convey some idea of the lands where they are formed: Lands doomed by Nature to perpetual frigidness; never to feel the warmth of the sun's rays; whose horrible and savage aspect I have not words to describe. Such are the lands we have discovered; what then may we expect those to be which lie still farther to the south? For we may reasonably suppose that we have seen the best, as lying most to the north. If any one should have resolution and perseverance to clear up this point by proceeding farther than I have done, I shall not envy him the honour of the discovery; but I will be bold to say, that the world will not be benefited by it.
I had, at this time, some thoughts of revisiting the place where the French discovery is said to lie. But then I considered that, if they had really made this discovery, the end would be as fully answered as if I had done it myself. We know it can only be an island; and if we may judge from the degree of cold we found in that lat.i.tude, it cannot be a fertile one. Besides, this would have kept me two months longer at sea, and in a tempestuous lat.i.tude, which we were not in a condition to struggle with. Our sails and rigging were so much worn, that something was giving way every hour; and we had nothing left either to repair or to replace them. Our provisions were in a state of decay, and consequently afforded little nourishment, and we had been a long time without refreshments. My people, indeed, were yet healthy, and would have cheerfully gone wherever I had thought proper to lead them; but I dreaded the scurvy laying hold of them at a time when we had nothing left to remove it. I must say farther, that it would have been cruel in me to have continued the fatigues and hards.h.i.+ps they were continually exposed to, longer than was absolutely necessary. Their behaviour, throughout the whole voyage, merited every indulgence which it was in my power to give them. Animated by the conduct of the officers, they shewed themselves capable of surmounting every difficulty and danger which came in their way, and never once looked either upon the one or the other, as being at all heightened, by our separation from our consort the Adventure.
All these considerations induced me to lay aside looking for the French discoveries, and to steer for the Cape of Good Hope; with a resolution, however, of looking for the isles of Denia and Ma.r.s.eveen, which are laid down in Dr Halley's variation chart in the lat.i.tude of 41 1/2 S., and about 4 of longitude to the east of the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope. With this view I steered N.E., with a hard gale at N.W. and thick weather; and on the 25th, at noon, we saw the last ice island, being at this time in the lat.i.tude of 52 52' S., longitude 26 31' E.
1775 March
The wind abating and veering to the south, on the first of March, we steered west, in order to get farther from Mr Bouvet's track, which was but a few degrees to the east of us, being at this time in the lat.i.tude of 46 44' S., longitude 33 20' E., in which situation we found the variation to be 23 36' W. It is somewhat remarkable, that all the time we had northerly winds, which were regular and constant for several days, the weather was always thick and cloudy; but, as soon as they came south of west, it cleared up, and was fine and pleasant. The barometer began to rise several days before this change happened; but whether on account of it, or our coming northward, cannot be determined.
The wind remained not long at south before it veered round by the N.E.
to the N.W., blowing fresh and by squalls, attended, as before, with rain and thick misty weather. We had some intervals of clear weather in the afternoon of the 3d, when we found the variation to be 22 26' W.; lat.i.tude at this time 45 8' S., longitude 30 50' E. The following night was very stormy, the wind blew from S.W. and in excessively heavy squalls. At short intervals between the squalls the wind would fall almost to a calm, and then come on again with such fury, that neither our sails nor rigging could withstand it, several of the sails being split, and a middle stay-sail being wholly lost. The next morning the gale abated, and we repaired the damage we had sustained in the best manner we could.