THE EUROPEAN JOURNALS 85 



We have also caught two Sharks, one a female about 

 seven feet long, that had ten young, alive, and v able to 

 swim well ; one of them was thrown overboard and made 

 off as if well accustomed to take care of himself. Another 

 was cut in two, and the head half swam off out of our 

 sight. The remainder, as well as the parent, were cut in 

 pieces for bait for Dolphins, which are extremely partial to 

 that meat. The weather being calm and pleasant, I felt 

 desirous to have a view of the ship from a distance and 

 Captain Hatch politely took me in the yawl and had it 

 rowed all round the " Delos." This was a sight I had not 

 enjoyed for twenty years, and I was much pleased with it; 

 afterwards having occasion to go out to try the bearings of 

 the current, I again accompanied him, and bathed in the 

 sea, not however without some fears as to Sharks. To try 

 the bearings of the current we took an iron pot fastened 

 to a line of one hundred and twenty fathoms, and made a 

 log-board out of a barrel's head leaded on one side to make 



o 



it sink perpendicularly on its edge, and tried the velocity 

 of the current with it fixed to a line by the help of a second 

 glass? whilst our iron pot acted as an anchor. 



Let me change my theme, and speak of birds awhile. 

 Mother Carey's Chickens (Proccllaria) came about us, 

 and I longed to have at least one in my possession. I had 

 watched their evolutions, their gentle patting of the sea 

 when on the wing, with the legs hanging and the web 

 extended, seen them take large and long ranges in search 

 of food, and return for bits of fat thrown overboard for 

 them, I had often looked at different figures given by 

 scientific men ; but all this could not diminish for a moment 

 the long-wished for pleasure of possessing one in the flesh. 

 I fired, and dropped the first one that came alongside, and 

 the captain most courteously sent for it with the yawl. 

 I made two drawings of it; it proved to be a female with 

 eggs, numerous, but not larger than grains of fine powder, 

 1 This sounds involved, but is copied verbatim. 



