36 SAILING OF THE SQUADRON. [1838. 



into the vat, and commence stamping furiously, accompany- 

 ing their motions with a rude song. After this process has 

 been continued for a sufficient length of time, the legs of the 

 men are scraped, and the pomace set up in the shape of a 

 cone, and bound about with the young cuttings of the vine. 

 A lever, to which a large stone, or rock, is attached by a 

 screw, is now applied, and the juice expressed into tubs, — 

 one gallon being generally obtained from two bushels of grapes. 

 The must is drawn off into casks, in which it ferments ; it is 

 then clarified with gypsum or isinglass, and the necessary 

 spirit imparted to it by the addition of two or three gallons 

 of brandy to a pipe. 



(7.) Having completed their repairs, the Exploring Squad- 

 ron weighed anchor in the afternoon of the 25th of Septem- 

 ber, and sailed from the harbor of Funchal, in the direction 

 of the Cape de Verdes. Delightful weather, and cool breezy 

 winds, attended them during the whole time they were at 

 sea. Passing Bonavista, one of the Cape de Verdes, to which 

 the sailors have given the sobriquet of " Bonny- wiskers," 

 without stopping, they came in sight of the island of Mayo, 

 belonging to the same group, which loomed darkly in the dis- 

 tance, at four o'clock in the afternoon of the 6th of October, 

 and shortly before midnight lay to off St. Jago, the principal 

 island. On the night of the 6th, a most brilliant display of 

 the radiate animalculae, known as Medusa, or sea-nettles, was 

 witnessed. The vast expanse of waters seemed paved with 

 innumerable diamonds that out-sparkled the stars which 

 glimmered above them, and wavy floods of phosphorescent 

 light dashed against the vessels, or rolled slowly in towards 

 the shore. Long trains of glittering light marked the courses 

 of the fish ; and the motion of a rudder, or the disturbance 

 occasioned in the water by anything thrown overboard, pro- 

 duced beautiful flashing coruscations. A number of exper- 

 iments were made, from which it was satisfactorily ascer- 

 tained that the animalculoe did not extend below eighteen 

 fathoms' water. 



fn the morning of the 7th of October, the fleet turned the 



