1838.J ISLAND OP MADEIRA. 3] 



(5.) On the 25th of August, the squadron laid its course 

 towards the island of Madeira. The winds had been light 

 and the sea smooth, but on the night of the 26th there came 

 up a squall, during which the Peacock and the Flying-Fish 

 parted company with the other vessels. 



The first days in September were clear, bright, and beau- 

 tiful ; immense shoals of flying fish disported about the prows 

 of the ships, or darted through the air to escape from their 

 voracious pursuers ; and beautiful dolphins, and " deep-sea" 

 sharks, were seen in every direction. In the morning of the 

 6th, they encountered a huge cotton-wood tree, one hundred 

 and twenty feet in length, and fourteen feet in circumference ; 

 all covered over with barnacles, and much eaten by the tere- 

 dine, or sea borer ; and probably thousands on thousands 

 of miles from the place where it grew — on the banks of the 

 Mississippi. In the afternoon of the 9th instant, they passed 

 in sight of the Peak of Pico, one of the Azores, or Western 

 Islands, and on the following day made the northern coast of 

 St. Michael's, belonging to the same group, a high and moun- 

 tainous island, but exceedingly fertile, and dotted with groves 

 and villas, and rich cultivated fields, which could just be dis- 

 cerned with the glass. 



(6.) At daylight on the 16th of September, the tall cliffs, 

 and jagged precipices, of the island of Madeira, were dis- 

 covered looming up above the wide expanse of waters at the 

 south. The first sight of the island does not produce a favor- 

 able impression, but a nearer view discloses scenery remark- 

 ably picturesque, and, indeed, beautiful. Bold, embattled 

 cliffs, rising to the height of sixteen hundred feet, the abodes 

 of the ospray and sea-gull, and beneath which is heard the 



to have remarked the singular fact disclosed by the examinations of Lieutenant 

 Bache— who was unfortunately wrecked off Cape Hatteras, while engaged in 

 the Coast Survey, on the 8th of September, 1846,— that the whole current of 

 warm water, to the depth of at least four hundred and eighty fathoms, divides 

 itself into two principal branches, separated by a portion of cold water. The 

 transition from the cold to the warm water, on the inner edge of the stream, is 

 said to be almost as instantaneous, as if the two were separated by a wall, nearly 

 Derpendicular, except that it inclines slightly to the east at the top. 



