14 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
I have not heard the particulars respecting the time, 
and place where it was found. 
It is almost unnecessary to add, that the mouth of 
the bottle is first secured by a tight cork, which is 
covered with sealing wax, having the ship’s name 
impressed on it, and over that a piece of white cot- 
ton, with a view of making it more conspicuous, and 
thereby render it more likely to attract notice. 
Sunday, 23d. — Divine service was performed this 
forenoon, at which were present almost the whole of 
the officers and ship’s company, the weather being so 
fine that very few hands were required on deck. 
Monday, 24th. — We had a distant view to-day of 
that remarkable insulated rock, called Rockal; it 
looked at the distance we were from it (viz. between 
four and five leagues) exactly like a ship under sail : 
it was reported indeed by the person who first saw it 
to be a strange vessel. Its resemblance not only in 
form, but also its colour, tended to make the decep- 
tion more complete, for it appeared to be perfectly 
white, a hue most probably produced by the excre-— 
ment of birds. Our distance from it indeed was too 
great to enable us to speak with certainty on this - 
head; but, from the number of birds we saw in its 
neighbourhood, and its insular situation, we may 
fairly conclude that it is well inhabited by the 
feathered race, for here they are perfectly secure 
from the attacks of their greatest enemy, man. 
If we estimated our distance from it at all correctly, 
its situation, as determined by His Majesty’s ship 
Endymion, is very accurately laid down, at least inas- 
much as it agrees with the mean of the results of the 
sights taken for our chronometers.* In the course 
* Lat. 57° 39! 30’ N. and longitude 13° 30! W. 
