180 FROM CONCEPTION BAY 



To take away the bad taste of the soup, I had two 

 tin boxes of Enghsh patent meat opened ; these 

 contain fresh meat boiled in steam, and are 

 soldered together with so much care, that not the 

 least air can penetrate; on which account, the 

 meat, even after years, cannot be distinguished 

 from quite fresh. Even an epicure would have 

 been satisfied with the dish, which now stood on 

 our table ; and how much more we, who had tasted 

 nothing but salt meat, for a length of time. 



July 3d. At four o'clock, A.M., when we were 

 in latitude 31° 49', longitude 200° 15', both reduced 

 from the observations made yesterday, according 

 to the ship's reckoning, we caught a land-bird, 

 which, in a few hours, after having eaten with great 

 appetite some mill beetles which we gave it, was set 

 at liberty. Large flocks of sea-fowls, among which 

 were numbers of tropical birds, passed us inces- 

 santly. The colour of the water had changed 

 surprisingly since noon, and at 4 o'clock, P.M., it 

 was so dirty, that, in the supposition of being near 

 a shoal, I ordered the bottom to be examined with 

 the lead ; but it did not reach it, even at the depth 

 of 100 fathoms. Dr. Eschscholtz, who had, regularly 

 every day at noon, examined the temperature on 

 the surface of the sea by the thermometer, found 

 it at this moment 2^ degrees colder, a proof that 

 the depth of the sea had considerably decreased 

 since noon, and that we were probably in the neigh- 

 bourhood of an unknown land, which was hid by 



17 



