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•Tuefday 13.
A V O Y A G E ROUND THE WOULD.
out of the feals fat: he alfo ordered the fkins to be made
ufe of for repairing our rigging.
The fuccefs of the preceding day encouraged him to
make another trip to the Seal Iflands, on which my father
accompanied him again ; but the fea ran fo very high, that
it was by no means prafticable to come near, and much
lefs to land on them. With a great deal of difficulty they
weathered the S. W. point of Anchor Ifland, where the fea
tumbled in with great impetuofity, and was fo much agitated
as to affe& the mariners with ficknefs. They then
■ rowed along the north ffiore of that ifland, where the captain
landed to take the hearings of different points. It happened
very fortunately, that they had taken this route ; for
'they now difcovered the fmall boat adrift, which fet off
from the floop on the n th in the evening, and laid hold
-of it the moment before it was going to be daflred agamft
the rocks. The boat was immediately .fecured in a fmaM
•creek, and after' refrelhing the people with fome proviflons
which they found in it, captain Cook proceeded to the place
where he fuppofed the party of officers to be, from whom
At was drifted away. Between feven and eight an the evening
they reached the cave, and found them on a froall
ifland, to which they could not then .approach, becaufe the
tide had left it. They landed therefore on an adjacent
■ point, and after many fruitlefs attempts, at length fucceed-
ed in making a fire. Here they broiled fome filh, and after
fupper
A V O Y A G E ROUND THE WORLD. 1*3
fupper lay down; the ftony beach was their bed, and their Avlll.
covering the canopy of heaven.
At three o’clock in the morning the tide permitted them
to take the fportfmen from their barren ifland ; after which
they immediately failed with a fair wind, accompanied
with fhowers of rain, to the cove where they had fecured
the other boat. Here they found an immenfe number of
petrels of the bluifh fpecies, common over the whole
fouthern ocean *, fome being on the wing, and others in
the woods, in holes under ground formed between the
roots of trees and in the crevices of rocks, ’ in places not
eafily acceffible, where they probably had their nefts and
young. In day time, not one of them was to be feen
there, the old ones then being probably out at fea in queft
of food. They now faw them going out for that purpofe,
and two days ago they had been obferved at thé Seal
Iflands, returning in the evening in order to feed their
young with the food which they had collefted. They now
heard a great variety of confufed founds coming from the
fides of the hill, fome very acute, others like the croaking
of frogs, which were made by thefe petrels. At other
times we have found innumerable holes on the top of one
of the Seal Iflands, and heard the young petrels making a
noife in them ■; but as the holes communicated with each
other it was impoflible to come at one of them. We had
* See page 91,
Vol, I. X a,l read,y