44 cook's first voyage 1768. 



CHAP. III. 



THE PASSAGE FROM RIO DE JANEIRO TO THE ENTRANCE 

 OF THE STREIGHT OF LE MAIRE, WITH A DESCRIPTION 

 OF SOME OF THE INHABITANTS OF TERRA DEL FUEGO. 



'n the 9th of December we observed the sea to be 

 covered with broad streaks of a yellowish colour, 

 several of them a mile long, and three or four hun- 

 dred yards wide ; some of the water thus coloured 

 was taken up, and found to be full of innumerable 

 atoms, pointed at the end, of a yellowish colour, and 

 none more than a quarter of a line, or the fortieth 

 part of an inch long ; in the microscope they ap- 

 peared to be Fasciculi of small fibres interwoven with 

 each other, not unlike the nidus of some of the Phy- 

 ganeas, called Caddices ; but whether they were 

 animal or vegetable substances, whence they came, 

 or for what they were designed, neither Mr. Banks 

 nor Dr. Solander could guess. The same appear- 

 ance had. been observed before, when we first dis- 

 covered the Continent of South America. 



On the 11th we hooked a shark, and while we 

 were playing it under the cabin window, it threw 

 out, and drew in again, several times, what appeared 

 to be its stomach : it proved to be a female, and 

 upon being opened six young ones were taken out 

 of it ; five of them were alive, and swam briskly in a 

 tub of water, but the sixth appeared to have been 

 dead some time. 



Nothing remarkable happened till the 30th, except 

 ' that we prepared for the bad weather, which we were 

 shortly to expect, by bending a new suit of sails ; 

 but on this day we ran a course of one hundred and 

 sixty miles by the log, through innumerable land 

 insects of various kinds, some upon the wing, and 

 more upon the water, many of which were alive ; 



