1772. ROUND THE WORLD. SI 



hot climates. To prevent this, and agreeable to 

 some hints I had from Sir Hugh Palliser, and from 

 Captain Campbell, I took every necessary precaution, 

 by airing and drying the ship with fires made betwixt 

 decks, smoaking, &c. and by obliging the people to 

 air their bedding, wash and dry their clothes, when- 

 ever there was an opportunity. A neglect of these 

 things causeth a disagreeable smell below, affects the 

 air, and seldom fails to bring on sickness ; but more 

 especially in hot and wet weather. 



We now began to see some of those birds which 

 are said never to fly far from land ; that is, man of 

 war, and tropic birds, gannets, &c. No land, how- 

 ever, that we knew of, could be nearer than eighty 

 leagues. 



On the 30th, at noon, being in the latitude of 2 

 35' north, longitude 7 30' west, and the wind hav- 

 ing veered to the east of south, we tacked and 

 stretched to the S, W. In the latitude of 52! 

 north, longitude 9 25' west, we had one calm day, 

 which gave us an opportunity of trying the current 

 in a boat. We found it set to the north one-third 

 of a mile an hour. We had reason to expect this 

 from the difference we frequently found between 

 the observed latitude, and that given by the log : and 

 Mr. Kendal's watch showed us, that it set to the 

 East also. This was fully confirmed by the lunar 

 observations ; when it appeared, that we were 3 

 more to the east than the common reckoning. At 

 the time of trying the current, the mercury in the 

 thermometer in the open air stood at 75% ; and when 

 immerged in the surface of the sea, at 74 ; but when 

 immerged eighty fathoms deep (where it remained 

 fifteen minutes) when it came up, the mercury stood 

 at 66. At the same time we sounded, without find- 

 ing bottom with a line of two hundred and fifty 

 fathoms. 



The calm was succeeded by a light breeze at S. W. 

 which kept veering by little and little to the south, 



