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CAPE BIRD.
[Chap. VIII.
1841
Jan. 28. mander of the second ship, upon whom the harmony and right feeling between the two vessels so greatly depends. I considered myself equally fortunate in having for the senior lieutenant of the Erebus, one whose worth was so well known to me, and who, as well as Commander Crozier, had ever shown so much firmness and prudence during the arduous voyages to the arctic regions, in which we sailed together as messmates, under the most successful arctic navigator; in compliment to him, I named the western promontory at the foot of Mount Erebus, "Cape Bird." These two points form the only conspicuous headlands of the coast, the bay between them being of inconsiderable depth. At 4 p.m. Mount Erebus was observed to emit smoke and flame in unusual quantities, producing a most grand spectacle. A volume of dense smoke was projected at each successive jet with great force, in a vertical column, to the height of between fifteen hundred and two thousand feet above the mouth of the crater, when condensing first at its upper part, it descended in mist or snow, and gradually dispersed, to be succeeded by another splendid exhibition of the same kind in about half an hour afterwards, although the intervals between the eruptions were by no means regular. The diameter of the columns of smoke was between two and three hundred feet, as near as we could measure it; whenever the smoke cleared away, the bright red flame that filled the mouth of the crater was clearly perceptible; and some of the officers believed they
Jan. 28. mander of the second ship, upon whom the harmony and right feeling between the two vessels so greatly depends. I considered myself equally fortunate in having for the senior lieutenant of the Erebus, one whose worth was so well known to me, and who, as well as Commander Crozier, had ever shown so much firmness and prudence during the arduous voyages to the arctic regions, in which we sailed together as messmates, under the most successful arctic navigator; in compliment to him, I named the western promontory at the foot of Mount Erebus, "Cape Bird." These two points form the only conspicuous headlands of the coast, the bay between them being of inconsiderable depth. At 4 p.m. Mount Erebus was observed to emit smoke and flame in unusual quantities, producing a most grand spectacle. A volume of dense smoke was projected at each successive jet with great force, in a vertical column, to the height of between fifteen hundred and two thousand feet above the mouth of the crater, when condensing first at its upper part, it descended in mist or snow, and gradually dispersed, to be succeeded by another splendid exhibition of the same kind in about half an hour afterwards, although the intervals between the eruptions were by no means regular. The diameter of the columns of smoke was between two and three hundred feet, as near as we could measure it; whenever the smoke cleared away, the bright red flame that filled the mouth of the crater was clearly perceptible; and some of the officers believed they
