which apparently. defcends till it joins the agitated water below. Captain
Cook, fays, he ufes the term apparently, becaufe.he does not believe it to be fo
in. reality; on the contrary, he conceives; that, the tube is already formed from
the.agitated water below, and afcends, although at firft it is either too fmall, or
too thin to be feen. When the tube is formed, or become vilible, its apparent
diameter increafes, until it is pretty large; after that it decreafes; and at laft
it breaks or becomes invifible.towards the latter part. Soon after the fea below
refumes its natural ftate, and the tube is drawn by little and little up to the
clouds, where it is diffipated. The fame tube would fometimes have a vertical,
and fometimes a crooked or inclined direction. Captain Cook further obferves,
that he had been told, that firing a gun would diffipate them; and he was very
ibrry he did not try the experiment, as they were near enough, and had a gun
ready for the purpofe; but as foon as the danger was paft, he thought no more
about it, being too attentive in viewing thefe extraordinary meteors.
The wind, having returned to the weft, as already mentioned, they refumed
their ;COurfe to the eaft, and at day light, the next, morning, being the 18th,
appeared off Queen Charlotte’s Sound, where they difcovered their confort the
Adventure, by the fignals ihe made: an event which every one felt with an
agreeable fatisfadbion. At noon the lieutenant of the Adventure came on Board,
from whom Captain Cook learnt that their ihip had been there about fix weeks;
and at fix in the evening, being pome to ah anchor in Ship Cove, near the
Adventure, Captain Furneaux came on board, and gave the following account
of his proceedings from the time he parted from the Refolution.
- “ On the 7 th of February, 1773, in the morning, the Refolution being then
about two miles ahead, the wind fhifting to the weftward, brought on a very
thick fog, fo that we. loft fight of her; we foon after heard a gun, the report
of which we imagined to be on the larboard beam, upon which we hauled
up to S. E=. and kept firing a four-pounder every half hour, but had no
anfwer, nor further fight of her; we then kept the courfe we fteered before
the fog came on: But not feeing :any thing of her in the evening, though it
was at in tervals^ clear, which gave us much uneafinefs, we tacked and ftood to
the weftward, to cruife in the place where we laft faw her, according to
agreement
agreement in cafe of reparation. A Very heavy gale of wind and thick weather
prevented us from reaching the intended fpot; we, however, cruifed as near
the place as we-could get, for three., days; when, giving over all hopes of
joining company again, we bore away for winter quarters, diftant fourteen
hundred leagues, through a fea entirely unknown; and reduced the allowance
o f water to one quart per day; ^
For feveral days we had much wefterly wind, hard gales, with fqualls, fnow P- 108.
and fleet, with a long hollow fea from the S. W. which led us to conclude, that
there is no land in that quarter.
On the 26th, at night, we faw a meteor of uncommon brightnefs in the P*I0®*
N. N. W. it directed its courfe to the S. W. with a very great light in the
fouthern iky, fuch as is known to the northward by the name of Aurora Borealis,
or Northern Lights. We perceived the light for federal nights running;
and what is remarkable, we faw but one ice ifland after we parted company with
the Refolution, till our making land; though we were moft of the time two or
three degrees to the fouthward of the latitude we firft faw it in. We were
daily attended by a great number of fea birds; and frequently faw porpoifeSi
curioufly ipotted, white and black.
On the ift of March we were furprifed with the cry of land from the man p. IoS.
at the maft head,, on.the larboard beam. We immediately hauled our wind, and
flood for it ; but, to our great mortification, in a few hours, we found it to be
only clouds, which difappeared as we failed towards them. We then bore away
for the land laid down in the charts by the name of Van Diemen's Land dif-
coyered by Tafman, in 1642.
, “ the 9'h. being inlatitude43-37' fouth, longitude 145-36'eaft, wefaw
land, bearrng N. N. E. about eight or nine leagues diftant. We hauled', up for it P' I09-
and after paffing two or three, fmall ¡Hands, difcovered a bold Acre,- which
eemed to, afford feveral bays or anchoring places. The country appeared hilly,
wild hi T r°Cky’ Q diffitUlt landing, occafiorred by-the
wmds_ blowing here continually from the weftward, which caufed fuch a furf
that the land cannot lie on the-ihore;