THE PACIFIC OCEAN. *8x 



pear very remarkable, if we confider the feafon of the 

 year, and the quarter from which the wind blew. Cn the 

 19th, the thermometer, in the day-time, remained at the Monday rg. 

 freezing point, and at four in the morning fell to 29 . If 

 the reader will take the trouble to compare the degree cf 

 heat, during the hot fultry weather we had at the begin- 

 ning of this month, with the extreme cold which we now 

 endured, he will conceive how feverely fo rapid a change 

 mull have been felt by us. 



In the gale of the 18th, we had fplit almoft all the fails 

 we had bent, which being our fecond belt fuit, we were 

 now reduced to make ufeof our laft and bell fet. To add 

 to Captain Clerke's difficulties, the fea was in general fo 

 rough, and the (hips fo leaky, that the fail-makers had no 

 place to repair the fails in, except his apartments, which, 

 in his declining Hate of health, was a ferious inconvenience 

 to him. 



20. 



On the 20th, at noon, being in latitude 49 45' North, Tuefday 

 and longitude 161 15' Eaft ; and eagerly expecting to fall 

 in with the coaft of Ana, the wind fhifted fuddenly to the 

 North, and continued in the fame quarter the following 

 day. However, although it retarded our progrefs, yet the 

 fair weather it brought was no fmall refreshment to us. 

 In the forenoon of the 21ft, we faw a whale, and a land- Wednef. 21 

 bird ; and, in the afternoon, the water looking muddy, we 

 founded, but got no ground with an hundred and forty fa- 

 thoms of line. During the three preceding days, we faw 

 large flocks of wildfowl, of a fpecies refembling ducks. 

 This is ufually confidered as a proor of the vicinity of land; 

 but we had no other figns of it, fmce the 16th; in which 

 time we had run upward of an hundred and fifty leagues. 



On 



