t'HAP.
X.
June,
lS2(i.
the salute without any omission, as the Looehooans counted the guns
as they were fired.
A few hours after we parted with the Tuscan, we fell in with two
other whale ships, neither of which could spare us any provisions. These
ships were no doubt fishing down a parallel of latitude, which is a common
custom, unless they find a continued scarcity of whales. The SOth
degree I believe is rather a favourite one with them.
Ten days after our departure from Oneehow we lost the trade wind
in latitude 30° N . and longitude 195° AV.; it had been variable before
this, but had not fairly deserted us: its failure was of little consequence,
as in three days afterwards W'e were far enough to the westward to
ensure the remainder of the passage; and indeed from the winds
which ensued, a course might as well have been shaped for Kamsehatka
on the day we lost the wind.
On the 3d of June, the day after leaving Oneehow, in latitude 25°
N. and longitude 163° 15' AA"., w'e saw large flocks of tern and noddies,
and a few gannets and tropic birds, also boneta, and shoals of flying-fish ;
and on the Sth, in latitude 28° 10' N . and longitude 172° 20' AA"., we
had similar indications of the proximity of land. Though such appearances
are by no means infallible, yet as so many coral islands have
recently been discovered to theAV. N. AV". of the Sandwich Islands, ships
in passing these places should not be regardless of them. On this day
we observed an albatross f diomedia exidans), the first we had seen
since quitting the coast of Chili. It is remarkable that Captain King in
his passage to Kamsehatka first met these birds within thirty miles of
the same spot. AA"e noticed about this time a change in the colour of
the wings of the flying-fish, and on one being caught it was found to
differ from the common exocceius volituns. AA'e continued to see tliese
fish occasionally as far as 30° N., about wliich time the tern also quitted
us. In 33° N. we first met the birds of the northern regions, the pro-
cellaria puffinus, but it was not until we were within a hundred miles
of the coast of Kamsehatka that we saw the lumrae, dovekie, rotge,
and other alca, and the shag. The tropic birds accompanied us as far
as 36° N.
On the 18th and 19th, in latitude 35° N., longitude 194” 30' W.,
we made some experiments on the temperature of the sea at intermediate
depths, as low as 760 fathoms, where it was fonnd to be twenty-eight
deirrees colder than at the surface; two days afterwards another series
was obtained, by which it appeared that the temperature at 180 fathoms
was as cold as that at 500 fathoms on the former occasion, and
it was twenty degrees colder at 380 fathoms on this, than it was at 760
fathoms on the other. Between these experiments we entered a thick
foo- which continued until we were close off the Kamsehatka coast ; and
wTalso experienced a change of current, both of which no doubt contributed
towards the change of temperature of the sea, which was much
greater than could have been produced by the alteration in the situation
of the ship: the fog by obstructing the radiation of heat, and the current
by bringing a colder medium from higher latitudes. About this
period we began to see drift wood, some of which passed us almost daily.
The sea was occasionally strewed with moluscous animals, principally
heroes and nereis, among which on the igth were a great many small
crabs of a curious species. AVhether it was that these animals preferred
the foggy weather, or that we more narrowly scrutinized the small space
of watCT around us to which our view was limited, I cannot say, but it
appeared to us that they were much more numerous while the fog
lasted than before.
In the afternoon of the 2Sd, in latitude 44° N.,the wind, which had
I roll at S AT., drew round to the west, and brought a cold atmosphere
in' which the thermometer fell fourteen degrees; it is remarkable that
sixteen hours before this change occurred, the temperature ol the sea
fell six degrees, while that of the atmosphere was affected only four
hours prevroiis. In my remarks on our passage round Cape Horn, I have
iiientioiied the frequency with which the temperature of the surface
of the sea was affected before that of the atmosphere when material
changes of wind were about to occur.
On the 26th, in latitude 49° N., after having traversed nearly seven
C H A P .
X.
hundred miles in so thick a fog that we could scarcely see fifty yards
from us, a north-east wind cleared the horizon for a few hours ; this
change again produced a sensible diminution of the temperature, which
was thirty-one' degrees lower than it had been thirteen days previous.
J l l l lf ,
1826. ! :
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