io calm the tVave's of the Sea. 227 



here give an account of the moft ftriklng of them, without 

 any fear of being thought too circumftantial, as experiments 

 of this kind fliould all be decifive. 



The inliabitants of the Bermudas employ oil in their fifli- 

 eries, in order to render the water of the fea clear and tranf- 

 parent; and the Portuguefe failors, when they find the 

 waves too violent on their entering the Tagus, pour a few 

 flafks of oil into the water, by which means it is rendered 

 calm, and their entrance becomes eafy. The divers in the 

 Mediterranean, when they labour under water, and when 

 the fun-beams are prevented from penetrating to them by 

 fmall waves, are accuftomed to fpurt a little oil from their 

 mouths. One Gilfred Lawfon, who ; efided feveral years at 

 Gibraltar, relates, that the feamen of that place were accuf- 

 tomed ^o pour a little oil into the fea, in order that they might 

 thereby be enabled to diftingxiiflj the oyfters at the bottom ; 

 and that the fame praftice was followed on the whole Spa- 

 nifh coaft. The fame thing is done on the coaft of Provence, 

 and alfo by the inhabitants of the Hebrides. The Mairufans, 

 with the like view, are accuftomed to fprinkle oil o\er the 

 water with a brufh ; and they give to the drops, under which 

 the water becomes tranfparent, the name of windows. Tys 

 7'ircmann, a Dutch mariner, made an experiment of this 

 kind durintj a ftorm, after he had lolt his rudder and fome 

 of his fails, and, with fix half ankers of oil, calmed the fury 

 of the waves. A lieutenant of the name of May obferved 

 in 1735, during a ftorm, that the fea was calm and fmooth 

 around two (hips laden with cafk.s of oil, fome of which were 

 leaky; and an experienced feaman, named Ecwerwyk, re- 

 commends, for fccuring boats which might be fent to the 

 afliftance of (liips in diftrefs, to throw into the fea, oil and 

 other fat fubftances, and even beer. In a defcription of the 

 fliipwreck of a vcflel called the Anna Cornelia, this property 

 of oil is alfo celebrated ; and fome experiments made at 

 I'ortfmoutli, in the time of a itorm, were attended with the 

 btll furcf fs. In the year 1736 Dctouehes de la I'renaye 



a 5 iaw 



