30 JOURNAL OF THE 
overboard. If I were a surgeon in the Royal Navy, I would — 
make most humble supplication that more care should be 
devoted to the construction of ship’s decks, and recommend 
their being water-tight, which surely cannot be difficult; and | 
if I were not attended to, I would add, like a second Cato 
Censorius, to every report a * ceterum censeo," that the decks — 
be rendered water-tight. It must be surely extremely - 
injurious to health to lie in wet beds.* On my recovery, - 
(Tuesday 22) I recommenced my observations on the tempe- — 
rature of the sea, and was surprised to find it in this latitude | 
still so high. It, however, soon decreased, and towards the . 
coast became very irregular. With regard to the observa- E 
tion of Tuesday, June 22, at half past three, p.m., of 86? 1^, à 
I will here especially observe, that every care had been 1 
taken to avoid any chance of error. 
Saturday, June. 26.—We anchored towards evening at 
Free Town, Sierra Leone, which presents a very charming 
appearance. From the Cape of Sierra Leone to the town, 
geutle undulations, bordered by a mountain chain, on which — 
one may distinguish isolated trees, run close to the shore of. i 
the river; while the intermediate space, and even far up the — 
ascent, is covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, bril- 3j 
liantly shining in the full tropical freshness of the rainy . 
season, which has just set in. Between the shrubs, many . 
negro villages, full of closely set cottages with pointed roofs, 2 
are sprinkled up to the town, and beyond it along the river. — 
The town itself has a very pleasing appearance : though laid . 
out in regular streets, the houses stand as yet singly amongst — 
trees and shrubs. Probabl 
tornadoes, when the land has been considerably invigorated 
by rains : a few months earlier it probably looked very dif- 4 
ome turns of the mountain-road afford indeed . 
ferent. S 
most splendid prospects. The vegetation of Sierra Leone 
has been so often describe 
* This defect, it is well known, 
war, and seldom except in man-of-war steamers.—(H. D. Trotter). 
y the aspect of the country may — 
not always be so agreeable: we are now at the end of the . 
d, that my observations, limited — 
does not occur generally in men-of- — 
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