177*»-
A ugu’st -.
Saturday S>
decks when it had unfortunately taken its flight too far,
and Was fpent by its too great elevation above the forface
of the fea. In the uniform life which we led between
the tropics, Where we found weather, wind, and fea, al-
tnoft conftalitly favourable and agreeable, the mind catched
at evéry little circumflance that could give the hint to a
reflection. When we faw the moft beautiful fillies of
the fea, the dolphin and bonito, in ptirfoit of the flying
fifli, and when thefe forfook their native element to feek
for Ihelter in air, the application to human nature was
obvions. Wh'ât empire is not like a tumultuous ocean,
where the great in all the magnificence and pomp of
power, continually pérfecutë and contrive the deftruftion
of the defencelefs’^-Sometimes we faw this picture continued
ftill farther, when the poor fugitives /met with
another fet of enemies in the air, and became the prey
of birds "% by endeavouring to efcape-the jaws of fifties.
On the 8th we ôbfervèd the fea to be of a whitifh
colour, and tried for foundings, but found none with
fifty fathoms of line. In the evening we croflèd the tropic
of cancer. About this time, the captain ordered the fhip
to be fumigated with gunpowder and vinegar, having,
taken notice that all our books, and utenfils became co—
* Boobies (pekeanus pifcaUr)-, men of war birds (p. aqmlus) i and tropic
birds (phattkon atbereus-).,,
vered
vered w-ith mould, and all oyr iron and Heel though
ever fo little expo fed, began to raft, Nothing is more
probable than that the vapours, which now filled the
air, contained fqme falip>e particles, fince; moifture alone
does no.t appear to produce foch an effect *. If it be alked
how any faline particles, generally fo much heavier than
the aqueous, can he railed in vapours, I leave it to the
philofophers to determine, whether the numerous animal
parts which daily putrefy in the ocean, dp not fupply
enough of the volatile alkali, by the alfiflarice of which the
above phenomenon might he explained, The great heat
between the- tropics feems to volatilife the marine acid
contained in the brine and common fa it: for it has been
obferved, that on rags dipped in a folution of any one of
the alkalies, and fofpended over one of the pans where
brine is evaporated and fait is prepared, cryftals are foon
formed of a neutral fait, compounded of the marine acid
and the alkali in which the rags had been imraerfed;
hence perhaps we may be allowed to infer, that the marine
acid is by the heat of the tropical fun vplatilifed, and
in that aerial or vaporous form attacks the forface of iron
and Heel ; nay, this little quantity of apid may perhaps,
imbibed by the lungs, and pores Of the Ikin, become falu-
tary ; in the firlt cafe to people under pulmonary difeafes j
Ba* This °pinion is Tery judicioutly difeufled by Ellis, Jn'his voyage to Hudfon’e
*.772-
A u g u s t ,
and