Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 349 



In this paííiige to the Newfoundhnd Teas, ftorms are 

 very frtquenc, yet they differ according to the feafons 

 of rhe year. We have already (etin that they nioil 

 ufually happen when the wind is at S. and though the 

 northern winds are very ftrong, yet they do not equal 

 thofe of the former quarters. On attending to this par- 

 ticular, a certain conformity will be found betwixt the 

 two oppofite hemifpheres; as in each, befides thie 

 circulation of the winds, the ftorms happen when they 

 b'ow from that part of the pole oppofite to that which 

 Í5 neareft each hemifphere. In the Scurh-fea the ftorms 

 generally rile from the N. and W. winds ; and in that of 

 the N. they are occafioned by the S. and W. winds. 



The hard gales which are met with in fummer in the 

 paffige to Newfoundland, are of no long continuance, 

 like the two v/ith which we were furprized in this 

 voyage: but they are more fudden and violent than in 

 winter; for from their beginning to the very height of 

 their violence is fcarce half an hour; and though in 

 this feafon they are not very frequent, yet it never paiies 

 without fome : but in winter they continue three or four 

 days fucceffively, and with no fmall force. Thefe of 

 both feafons are more or lefs accompanied with fogs ■ 

 and fhowers. 



July the 31(1, according to my account, at eight ia 

 the morning, being in 45 deg, 57 min. latitude, and 

 27 deg. 3 aiin. E. of Conception, we found by the 

 whitiir.1 tinge of the water, that we had entered on the 

 bank; and on founding found 55 fathom, and the 

 bottom, fand mixed with fmall iliells. On coinparing 

 the founding and the bottom with the new Frencii 

 map, my reckoning of the courfe was fix or feven 

 Jeagues too forward ; that is, we had that diftance to 

 fail before wecame to a bottom of that kind. On the 

 evening ws tack'd with an in:ent of leflcning our lati- 

 tude, as well to keep at a ditlance from Placentia, 

 as to avoid foaie ihoals lying at the weft end of the 



bank 



