Our light winds didn’t last long, for the cross-jack had to be hauled up, the three top-gallant-sails furled, and the main-sail reefed during last night. We made excellent headway, though, doing five miles more than three degrees of longitude, though we were driven off to the southward too much, being at noon to-day one hundred and sixty miles south of Cape Horn and well below the northern limit of drift-ice, though the temperature is not low, 39° at noon. Thus far this has been a slightly warmer winter passage than the average, though it will surprise many people to know that the thermometer rarely falls below 30° north of 60° south; the lowest that Captain Scruggs ever saw it was 28°, though a Dutch ship, of which I have forgotten the name, reported the mercury as low as 20° on one occasion some seventy-five years ago. Fogs form a very disagreeable feature of the Southern Ocean after the meridian of the Horn is passed, and the dampness likewise generally increases. A pretty good idea of the excessive moisture in this part of the world may be obtained by reading the report of the surveying steamer “Sylvia,” which was stationed in the Magellan Straits for fourteen months. Throughout that period rain fell on an average for eleven hours out of every twenty-four, the amount per day being half an inch. As for fogs, we have been in one for twenty-four hours now, and a lookout is stationed on the forecastle-head by day as well as by night. Indeed, it is probable that the hardest and most tedious part of the passage still remains; usually it is not very difficult to reach the seventieth meridian, the heaviest westerly gales generally being experienced between that point and 50° south, which vessels aim to cross in 90° west. We should very much like to see the wind come out of the southwest again, by which it will be perceived how hard we are to please, for the first ten days off Cape Horn we had nothing but southwesterly gales, and we rebuked them and would be satisfied with naught but northerly breezes; now a southerly blow would be most welcome.