*775*
January champion fallen, hurried to the fea ; and many of them
hobbled along with fuch precipitation, as to leap down ten
or fifteen yards perpendicular, upon the pointed rocks on
the fhore, though without receiving any hurt, which may
be attributed to their fat eafily giving way, and their hide
being remarkably tough.
The chace of thefe animals afforded great fport to our
people ; and the many Angular circurilftances which muft
ftrike the obferver, in contemplating a fpecies of animals
allbciated into numerous herds, gave us much fatisfa<Stion.
All thefe creatures were here in their proper climate ; for
the feals and fea lions being loaded with an immenfe quantity
of fat, and the fhags and pinguins with a thick plumage,
felt no inconvenience from the coolnefs of the weather.
The captain obtained a confiderable quantity of
blubber, which was put into calks, and afterwards converted
into oil -, but a difagreeable putrid flench infected the whole
fliip for feveral days after leaving thefe New Year’s Hies.
In the evening our party returned from New Year’s Harbour,
on Staten Land, which they had found extremely
fafe and commodious. They brought with them fome
gulls, and five large ducks of the fhort-winged fort, which
our failors called race-horfes. Each of thefe weighed fix-
teen pounds, but their meat was remarkably fetid, and not
fit to be eaten. We fpent the fecond of January in the
fame manner as the firft, flill making an aequifition of
fome
fome new fpecies of birds, with which this ifland, notwith- '
Handing its fmall fize, abounded. Among the reft we
found a fine fort of-grey curlew, with a yellow neck, which
was one of the ftatelieft birds we had ever feen. The vegetable
productions of this fpot were confined to fix or
eight fpecies, among which we faw fome fmall Ihrubs not
above three feet high, and a new plant; but the grafs
above mentioned ( M s glomerate) occupied almoft the
whole furface of the ifland. In the evening we hoifted in
all our boats, and the next morning at three o’clock we fet
fail, and doubled the N. E. end of Staten Land, which is
named Cape St. John by father Feuill6e. A prodigious
ftrong tide was obferved to run paft our fhip every day
whilft we lay at anchor, at the rate of four or five miles an
hour. This is, however, fo much the lefs remarkable, as
the Straits of Magelhaens and the eaftern coaft of America,
in high fouthevn latitudes, are likewife known to have
ftrong tides. The New Year’s Iflands, which we now left,
are fituated in * 4 ° .+«' S. and 64° 3 ° ' W.. The largeft
of them is about fix leagues, and that under which we lay
at anchor appeared to be between three and four leagues in
circuit. They are excellent places o f refrelhment for a
lliip’s crew bound on expeditions like ours ; for though the
flefli of fea-lions and pinguins is not the moft palatable
food, yet it is infinitely more falubrious than fait meat;
and by fearching the different iflands, it is not impiobable
v „ x- that
Vox.. II. x x x