332 Voyage of the Novara. 



which she had followed two years before, in sailing from Rio 

 to the Cape of Good Hope. Thus the actual circumnaviga- 

 tion had been successfully completed, and at least the mate- 

 rial portion of the undertaking happily achieved. 



Meanwhile the wind, though still always favourable, had, 

 abated greatly from its first strength, and each day saw the 

 barometer steadily rising. Even the sea-birds, those constant 

 attendants of vessels, so long as they are in the extra-tropical 

 latitudes of the Southern Ocean, now gradually began to 

 cease flitting around the ship, as she apjjroached the hot 

 zones. 



On 15th June, in 25" 40' S., by 25° 9' W., the ship reached 

 the S. E. trades. The weather was divine ; the deep blue sky 

 above, the exquisite tints of the atmosphere and the ocean, 

 and the calm beauty of the long full-moon nights, exercised a 

 most marked and beneficial influence upon the spirits and 

 bodily health of the crew. Huge whales disported about, 

 " blowing," as it is termed, immense masses of water into the 

 air, like so many springs leaping from the bosom of the deep, 

 or rushing upwards till half of their immense bodies emerged 

 vertically from the water, into which they slowly plunged 

 once more with a tremendous splash, the whole surface of the 

 sea boiling and undulating as they fell back, athwart which 

 might be seen dolphins gambolling about, or cleaving the 

 blue depths with unmatched velocity. The S. E. trade blew 

 with unbroken regularity, usually in its normal direction, 

 but occasionally hauling up a little towards N. E., till, as we 



