236 cook's voyage to march, 



this time of the year. The present season either 

 must be uncommon for its mildness, or we can assign 

 no reason why Sir Francis Drake should have met 

 with such severe cold, about this latitude, in the 

 month of June.* Viscaino, indeed, who was near 

 the same place in the depth of winter, says little of 

 the cold, and speaks of a ridge of snowy mountains, 

 somewhere on the coast, as a thing rather remark- 

 able, t Our seeing so few birds, in comparison of 

 what we met with in the same latitudes to the south 

 of the line, is another singular circumstance which 

 must either proceed from a scarcity of the different 

 sorts, or from a deficiency of places to rest upon. 

 From hence we may conclude, that beyond 40 in 

 the southern hemisphere, the species are much more 

 numerous and the isles where they inhabit also more 

 plentifully scattered about, than any where between 

 the coast of California and Japan, in or near that 

 latitude. 



During a calm, on the morning of the 2d, some 

 parts of the sea seemed covered with a kind of slime, 

 and some small sea animals were swimming about. 

 The most conspicuous of which were of gelatinous, 

 or medusa kind, almost globular ; and another sort 

 smaller, that had a white or shining appearance, and 

 were very numerous. Some of these last were taken 

 up, and put into a glass cup, with some salt water, 

 in which they appeared like small scales, or bits of 

 silver, when at rest, in a prone situation. When 

 they began to swim about, which they did with equal 

 ease, upon their back, sides, or belly, they emitted 

 the brightest colours of the most precious gems, ac- 

 cording to their position with respect to the light. 

 Sometimes they appeared quite pellucid, at other 

 times assuming various tints of blue, from a pale 



* See the account of Sir Francis's voyage, in Campbell's edition 

 of Harris, vol. i. p. 18, and other collections. 



f See Torquemada's Narrative of Viscaino's Expedition, in 

 1602 and 1603, in the second volume of Vanegas's History of 

 California, English translation, from p. 229, to p. 308. 



