[Page 47]
have been made by former explorers, and which they knew must have
been made in all good faith.

During the night of the 13th the ship lay under the shelter of
Coulman Island, but by the morning the wind had increased to such
a furious gale, and the squalls swept down over the cliffs with
such terrific violence, that in spite of every effort to keep her
in her station she began to lose ground. In the afternoon the wind
force was ninety miles an hour, and as they continued to lose ground
they got into a more choppy sea, which sent the spray over them
in showers, to freeze as it fell.

Again the situation was far from pleasant; to avoid one berg they
were forced to go about, and in doing so they ran foul of another. As
they came down on it the bowsprit just swept clear of its pinnacled
sides, and they took the shock broad on their bows. It sent the
ship reeling round, but luckily on the right tack to avoid further
complications. The following night was dismal enough; again and
again small bergs appeared through the blinding spray and drift, and
only with great difficulty could the unmanageable ship be brought
to clear them. Even gales, however, must have an end, and towards
morning the wind moderated, and once more they were able to steam
up close to the island. And there, between two tongues of ice off
Cape Wadworth, they landed on the steep rocks and erected a staff
bearing a tin cylinder with a further record of the voyage. By
the time this had been done the wind had fallen completely, and in
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the evening the ship entered a long inlet between Cape Jones and
the barrier-ice, and later turned out, of this into a smaller inlet