CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 5 
we 
In this most tedious fortnight we found little to amuse us ; 
birds and fishes seemed to have forsaken this region ; 
a single swallow or martin being the only one of the former 
seen ; the towing net, however, again afforded us abundance 
of marine animals, amongst which were many of the paper 
nautilus (Argonauta sulcata), with the living animals, which, 
in contradiction to the opinion of the French naturalists, 
proved to be perfect Octop:.* When forty leagues from the 
land, several floating patches of reeds and trees passed us, 
proving, if our chronometers had not shewn it, the existence 
of a strong western current. ‘The day we made the land a 
dead albatross ( Diomedea erulans ), was picked up floating in 
a putrid state ; which seems to shew that these birds wander 
farther towards the equator than is generally supposed. ‘The 
same day a whale (apparently a species of the Physeter, having 
large humps behind the back fin), struck our rudder with his 
tail in rising, and one of these fish rose directly under the 
Congo; and, according to the expression of those on board 
her, lifted her almost out of the water. These animals 
indeed were now extremely numerous. 
This day a vessel was seen for the first ime since leaving 
Porto Praya; from her warlike appearance and superior 
* L’animal qui forme cette coquille ne peut ¢tre un poulpe La Mare, Ani- 
maux sans Vertébres, p. 99. 
