1774.
September,
Saturday 5,
Wednefday 9.
two days after to take a dolphin, (eoryphzna hippurus,) which
is likewife dry meat; but the inimitable brightnefs of its
colours, which continually change from one rich hue to
another whilft it is drying, is, in my opinion, one of the
mod; admirable appearances which can occur to the
voyager’s view during a tropical navigation.
But here defcription clouds each fhining ray ;
What terms o f art can. N ature’s pow’rs difplay?
F alconer.
A boat was this day hoifted out in order to find the
diredlion of the current, and to determine the temperature
of the fea-water at a great depth. We founded with 250
fathoms without finding any bottom. The thermometer
in the air flood at 75a deg. dipped under the furface of
the fea it fliewed 74 deg. and after being let down to the
depth of 8s fathoms and hauled up again, it was fallen
to 6 ( 5 deg. It ftaid 30' under water, and was 27a in
hawling up. Our latitude at noon was 0° 52' north.
The boat being put, we had an opportunity of examining
that kind of blubber, or fea-nettle, which. Linnteus has
named medufa pelagica-, together with another fubmarine
animal called doris ./avis, and employed ourfelves in
making drawings of them, and more minute defcriptjions
than have hitherto been publiflied..
On the 9th, having palled the line with a light air, our
crew ducked fuch of their Ihipmates as had never crolled it
before,
before, and did not care to redeem themfelves by paying
a certain forfeit of brandy. Thofe who had been obliged
to undergo the briny fubmerfion, changed their linen and
clothes ; and as this can never be done too often, efpe-
cially in warm weather, the ducking proved a falutary
operation to them. The quantity of ftrong liquors, arifing
from the forfeits of the reft, ferved to heighten the jovial humour,
Which is the predominant charafteriftic of failors. This
■ day we likewife obtained a foutherly wind, which gradually
came round to S. by E. and S. S. E. and fettled into the
ufual trade-wind.
This day we caught feveral dolphins, and a flying-filh
one foot long fell on the quarter-deck. Ever fince the
8 th we had daily obferved feveral aquatic birds, fuch
as man of war birds, boobies (pelecanus aquilus & fulaj petrels,
gulls, and tropic-birds (phaeton aihereus.) We had alfo at
various intervals, found the fea covered with animals
belonging to the clafs of mollufca, one of which, o f a blue
colour, in lhape like a fnail, with four arms, divided into
many branches, was named glaucus atlantims ; another, tranf-
parent like a cryftal,. and often connected in'a long firing
with individuals of the fame fpecies, was referred to the
genus, namedJagyfa, mentioned in Lieut. Cook’s voyage in
the Endeavour *. Two other fpecies of mollufca, which
* See Hawkefvvorth’s compilation/vol. II. p, 2.
^OL‘ I feamen
>77=-
Ser t em be
Monday 14.