146 cook's SECOND VOYAGE JULY, 



next morning, in the latitude of 43 S', longitude 

 139 20' west, we had several lunar observations, 

 which were consonant to those made the day before, 

 allowing for the ship's run in the time. In the after- 

 noon, we had, for a few hours, variable light airs 

 next to a calm ; after which we got a wind from the 

 N. . blowing fresh and in squalls, attended with 

 dark gloomy weather, and some rain. 



We stretched to the S. E. till five o'clock in the 

 afternoon on the 14th ; at which time, being in the 

 latitude of 43 15', longitude 137 39' west, we tacked 

 and stood to the north under our courses, having a 

 very hard gale with heavy squalls, attended with 

 rain, till near noon the next day, when it ended in a 

 calm. At this time we were in the latitude of 42 39', 

 longitude 137 58' west. In the evening, the calm 

 was succeeded by a breeze from S. W., which soon 

 after increased to a fresh gale ; and fixing at S. S. W., 

 with it we steered N. E. --E. In the latitude of 41 

 25', longitude 135 58' west, we saw floating in the 

 sea a billet of wood, which seemed to be covered 

 with barnacles, so that there was no judging, how 

 long it might have been there, or from whence or 

 how far it had come. 



We continued to steer N. E. ^E. before a very strong 

 gale, which blew in squalls, attended with showers 

 of rain and hail, and a very high sea from the same 

 quarter, till noon, on the lfth. Being then in the 

 latitude of 39 44', longitude 133 3& west, which 

 was a degree and a half farther east than I had in- 

 tended to run ; nearly in the middle between my 

 track to the north in 1769, and the return to the south 

 in the same year, (as will appear by the chart) and 

 seeing no signs of land, I steered north-easterly, with 

 a view of exploring that part of the sea lying between 

 the two tracts just mentioned, down as low as the 

 latitude of 27, a space that had not been visited by 

 any preceding navigator that I knew of. 



On the 19th, being in the latitude of 36 34', Ion- 



