62 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Aug.-Sept. 



across the trackless Atlantic without encountering a little of the rage 

 and fury of its deceitful bosom. On the evening of the 10th, the day 

 We saw the icebergs the atmosphere became overclouded and the wind 

 after shifting round to the north-west began to blow rather stormy. 



There was now every appearance of bad weather approaching and 

 indeed before morning the wind from blowing hard increased to a 

 regular gale, and for the space of eighteen days we scarcely did any- 

 thing else than beat about against contrary winds, and a most tremen- 

 dous sea running "mountains high." I have known the winds to blow 

 pretty hard on land sometimes, but here out on the open sea with 

 nothing to break its force, it came with tenfold the power it has on 

 land. Several times we were obliged to have every sail furled and 

 even then the naked masts would bend like reeds. 



On the 28th April it blew a most tremendous gale, with thunder 

 and lightning and very heavy hail, but our vessel rode it out in 

 gallant style, hardly shipping any water except in the evening through 

 the fault of the man at the helm, who contrived to run the head of the 

 vessel into an immense wave which overflowed the whole of the deck, 

 set the water casks afloat, and sent a few hogsheads down the fore 

 hatch which happened to be left open, frightening and drenching some 

 of the steerage people. In the evening of this day I beheld a very 



utifu'l meteor in the south-east. It was of a bright blue colour at 

 first and after running a short course in the heavens gradually faded 

 into red and then vanished. We constantly had the bird called the 

 Stormy Petrel, by the sailors Mother Carey's Chicken, following in 

 the wake of our ship; sometimes making short trips on the ocean 

 skimming up and down the surface of the water, rising and sinking 

 with the v. ;, and then returning back again to the stern of the 

 vessel. This bird had a great resemblance to the martin and might 

 easily be mistaken for that bird. Their manner of flying is very much 

 the same. The}' are of a dark brown color, shaded with black on the back 

 and wings, and a pure white on the rump. They follow in the wake 

 of the vessel for the purpose of picking up any bits of bread or biscuit 

 or any grease that may be thrown overboard. They are very easily 

 caught with a piece of dark coloured string and a small hook baited 

 with a piece of pork, or another way is merely to tie a small piece of 

 wood at the end of a black thread and let it drag after the vessel. The 

 birds come iying around the wood to see what it is doing; the}- rlv 



linst the thread and entangle their wings and you have only to pull 

 them in. but they are harmless little creatures and no use after you get 

 them, so that catching them would not do for me. According to the 

 sailors the_\ are the constant forerunner^ of a storm but we had them 

 more or less the greater part of the voyage, and for two or three days 



(To be continued). 



