'S ' voyage, Port Egmont Hen, (on account of the great plenty
U—,---1 of them at Port Egmont in Falkland Mies') came hovering
T uefdhy 19. _ . . . . ~ . _ _ _ _ J - o feveral times over the lhip, and then left us m the diredlion
of N. E. They are a fhort thick bird about the fize of a large
crow, of a dark brown or chocolate colour, with a whitifh
ftreak under each wing in the fhape of a half moon. I
have been told that thefe birds are found in great plenty at
the Fero Illes, North of Scotland; and that they never go far
from land. Certain it is, I never before faw them above
forty leagues off; but I do not remember ever feeing fewer
than two together; whereas here was but one, which,
■ with the illands of ice, may have come a good’ way from
land.
At nine o’clock, the wind veering to E. N, E., we-tacked
and flood to the S. S. E.; but, at four in the morning of the
Wednef. 20. 20th, it returned back to its old point, and we refumed our
northerly courfe. One of the above birds, was feen this
morning; probably the fame we faw the night before, as
our fituation was not much altered. As the day advanced,
the gale increafed, attended with thick hazy weather, fleet
and fnow, and at laft obliged us to clofe-reef our top-fails,
and ftrike top-gallant-yards. But in the evening, the wind
abated fo as to admit us to carry whole top-fails and topgallant
yards aloft. Hazy weather, with fnow and fleet,
continued.
Thnrfday 21. In the afternoon of the 2iff, being in the latitude of 6it°
24'South, longitude 420 19' Eaft, we faw a white albatrofs
with black tipped wings, and a pintadoe bird: The wind
was now at South and S. W. a frefli gale. With this we
fleered N. E. againft a very high fea, which did not indicate
the vicinity of land in that quarter; and yet it was there
we
we were to expedf it. The next day, we had intervals of >773- r J January.
fair weather; the wind was moderate, and we carried our —>
. . Friday-2-2. ftudding fails. In the morning of the 23d, we were in la- Saturday 2 ^
titude 6o° 27' South, longitude 45° 33' Eaft- Snow fhowers
continued, and the weather was fo cold,, that the water in
our water veffels on deck had. been frozen for feveral preceding
nights.
Having clear weather at intervals, I fpread the fhips
a-breaft four miles from each other ; in order the better to
difcover any thing that might lie in our way. We continued
to fail in this manner till fix o’clock in the evening,
when hazy weather, and friow ffiowers, made it neceffary-
for ua to join.
We kept our courfe to N. E., till eight o’clock in the
morning of the 23th, when, the wind having veered round Monday zj.
to N. E. by E., by the Weft and North, we tacked, and flood
to N. W. The wind was frefli; and yet we made but little
way againft a high northerly fea. We now began to fee ■
fome of that.fort of peterels fo well known to failors by the
name of fheerwaters, latitude 58°. 10', longitude 500 54'
Eaft. In the afternoon, the wind veered to the Southward
of Eaft; and, at eight o’clock in the evening, it increafed
to a florm, attended with thick hazy weather, fleet and.
fnow,.
During night we went tinder our fore-fail’ and main-top-
foil clofe-reefed; at day-light the. next morning, added to Tucfda 2fc
them the fore and mizzen top-fails. . At four o’clock it fell
calm; but a prodigious high fea from the N. E., and a complication
of the worft of weather, viz. fnow, fleet, and rain,
continued, together with the calm, till nine o’clock in the
evening. Then the weather.cleared up, and we got a breeze