256 



A VOYAGE. TO 



1778. 



February. 



March . 

 Sunday i. 



of North America was not far didant, we might, from the 

 few figns of the vicinity of land hitherto met with, have 

 concluded, that there was none within fome thoufand 

 leagues of us. We had hardly feen a bird, or any other 

 oceanic animal, fince we left Sandwich Iflands. 



On the I ft of March, our latitude being now 44° 49' North, 

 and our longitude 228° Eaft, we had one calm day. This 

 was fucceeded by a wind from the North, with v/hich I 

 flood to the Eaft clofe hauled, in order to make the land. 

 According to the charts, it ought not to have been far from 

 us. It was remarkable, that we fhould ftiU carry with .us 

 fuch moderate and mild weather, fo far to the Northward, 

 and fo near the coaft of an extenlive continent, at tliis time 

 of the year. The prefent feafon either muft be uncommon 

 for its mildnefs, or we can aflign no reafon, why Sir Francis 

 Drake fliould have met with fuch fcvere cold, about this la- 

 titude, in the month of June*. Vifcaino, indeed, who was 

 near the fame place, in the depth of winter, fays little of 

 the cold, and fpeaks of a ridge of fnowy mountains, fome- 

 where on the coaft, as a thing rather remarkable f. Our 

 feeing fo few birds, in comparifon of what we met with in 

 the fame latitudes, to the South of the line, is another fingu- 

 lar circumftancc, which muft either proceed from a fcarcity 

 of the difTerent forts, or from a deficiency of places to reft 

 upon. From hence we may conclude, that beyond 40° in 

 the Southern hemifphere, the fpecies are much more nu- 

 merous, and the ifles where they inhabit alfo more plenti- 



• Sec the account of SirFr.incis's voyage, in Campbell's edition of Harris, Vol. i. 

 p. 18. and other CoUciSlions. 



i Sec Torqucmada's Narrative of Vifcaino's Expedition, in i6o2 and 1603, in 

 the fecond volume of Vanegas's Hiftory of California, Englifli tranflation, from 

 p. 229. to p. 308. 



fully 



