Next day, towards noon, the gale abated, so that we could carry close- reefed top-sails. But the weather continued thick and hazy, with sleet and snow, which froze on the rigging as it fell, and ornamented the whole with icicles; the mercury in the thermometer being generally below the freezing point. This weather continued till near noon the next day; at which time we were in the latitude of 59 deg. 12' S.; longitude 9 deg. 45' E.; and here we saw some penguins. The wind had now veered to the west, and was so moderate, that we could bear two reefs out of the top-sails. In the afternoon, we were favoured with a sight of the moon, whose face we had seen but once since we left the Cape of Good Hope. By this a judgment may be formed of the sort of weather we had since we left that place. We did not fail to seize the opportunity to make several observations of the sun and moon. The longitude deduced from it was 9 deg. 34' 30" E. Mr Kendal's watch, at the same time, giving 10 deg. 6' E., and the latitude was 58 deg. 53' 30" S. This longitude is nearly the same that is assigned to Cape Circumcision; and at the going down of the sun we were about ninety-five leagues to the south of the latitude it is said to lie in. At this time the weather was so clear, that we might have seen land at fourteen or fifteen leagues distance. It is, therefore very probable, that what Bouvet took for land, was nothing but mountains of ice, surrounded by loose or field-ice. We ourselves were undoubtedly deceived by the ice-hills, the day we first fell in with the field-ice. Nor was it an improbable conjecture, that that ice joined to land. The probability was however now greatly lessened, if not entirely set aside; for the space between the northern edge of the ice, along which we sailed, and our route to the west, when south of it, no where exceeded 100 leagues, and in some places not 60. The clear weather continued no longer than three o'clock the next morning, when it was succeeded by a thick fog, sleet, and snow. The wind also veered to N.E. and blew a fresh gale, with which we stood to S.E. It increased in such a manner, that before noon we were brought under close-reefed top-sails. The wind continued to veer to the north, at last fixed at N.W., and was attended with intervals of clear weather. Our course was E. 1/4 N., till noon the next day, when we were in the latitude of 59 deg. 2' S., and nearly under the same meridian as we were when we fell in with the last field of ice, five days before; so that had it remained in the same situation, we must now have been in the middle of it, whereas we did not so much as see any. We cannot suppose that so large a float of ice as this was, could be destroyed in so short a time. It therefore must have drifted to the northward: and this makes it probable that there is no land under this meridian, between the latitude of 55 deg. and 59 deg., where we had supposed some to lie, as mentioned above.