Enclosing in a bottle, which was buried under a marked tree in the garden, a memorandum giving the dates of his arrival and departure, the direction he intended to steer, and other information he thought might be useful to Furneaux, Cook sailed on 25th November, and as they passed through the straits, guns were continually fired, and a sharp lookout kept for signs of the Adventure; but nothing was seen, and as no other rendezvous had been appointed, Cook gave up all hope of her rejoining him. The Resolution, when clear, bore up for the south-east, but had the course at the first been north of east, the two ships might possibly have met, for the Adventure was then on her way from Tolago Bay and arrived in Ship Cove four days after the departure of her consort. Cook says his crew were in good spirits, and in no way dejected, "or thought the dangers we had yet to go through were in the least increased by being alone." They were quite ready to go, "wherever I might think proper to lead them." Even Mr. Forster had to admit at a little later date, that: "notwithstanding the constant perils to which our course exposed us, in this unexplored ocean, our ship's company were far from being so uneasy as might have been expected." ARMOUR OF ICE. On 6th December, at 8.30 A.M., they reckoned they were "at the Antipodes to our friends in London, consequently as far removed from them as possible." Here a swell coming from the south-west showed there was no great body of land in that direction, except at a considerable distance. The first ice was seen on 12th December in 62 degrees 10 minutes South, and on the 15th, in 66 degrees South, they were obliged to edge away north as they were surrounded by large quantities of loose ice, and it was very foggy. Working up to between 64 and 65 degrees, they again headed east still hampered by ice and fog, but in a few days the weather improved a little, and they recovered the Antarctic Circle, and reached 67 degrees 31 minutes South on the 23rd, the highest south latitude hitherto attained. The rigging was so coated with ice that it was difficult to work the ship, and Cook altered his course to the north-east. Marra says, under 18th December: "Icicles frequently hung to the noses of the men, more than an inch long...the men, cased in frozen snow, as if clad in armour, where the running rigging has been so enlarged by frozen sleet as hardly to be grasped by the largest hand...yet, under all these hardships, the men cheerful over their grog, and not a man sick, but of old scars." Cook says that some of the men suffered from fever brought on by the unavoidable exposure to cold and wet, but it was slight, and "happily yielded to the simplest remedies." The ship was so surrounded by masses of ice as to cause some apprehension, but by taking advantage of every breath of air the danger was averted. Christmas Day was passed in constant watchfulness.