122 cook's SECOND VOYAGE FEB. 



feet account, I refer you to the table at the end of 

 tliis book. 



On the 26th at night, we saw a meteor of un- 

 common brightness in the N. N. W. It directed its 

 course to the S. W. with a very great light in the 

 southern sky, such as is known to the northward by 

 the name of Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. 

 We saw the light for several nights running ; and, 

 what is remarkable, we saw but one ice island after 

 we parted company with the Resolution, till our 

 making land, though we were most of the time two 

 or three degrees to the southward of the latitude we 

 first saw it in. We were daily attended by great 

 numbers of sea birds, and frequently saw porpoises 

 curiously spotted white and black. 



On the first of March we were alarmed with the 

 cry of land by the man at the mast head, on the lar- 

 board beam ; which gave us great joy. We imme- 

 diately hauled our wind and stood for it, but to our 

 mortification were disappointed in a few hours ; for 

 what we took to be land, proved no more than clouds, 

 which disappeared as we sailed towards them. We 

 then bore away and directed our course toward the 

 land laid down in the charts by the name of Van 

 Diemen's Land, discovered by Tasman in 1642, and 

 laid down in the latitude 44 south, and longitude 

 140 east, and supposed to join to New Holland. 



On the 9th of March, having little wind and plea- 

 sant weather, about nine, A. M. being then in the 

 latitude 43 37' south longitude, by lunar observation, 

 145 36' east, and by account, 143 10' east, from 

 Greenwich, we saw the land bearing N. N. E. about 

 eight or nine leagues distance. It appeared moder- 

 ately high, and uneven near the sea j the hills 

 further back formed a double land and much higher. 

 1 here seemed to be several islands, or broken land, 

 to the N. W. as the shore trenched ; but by reason 

 of clouds that hung over them, we could not be 

 certain whether they did not join to the main. We 



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