OP LA PEROUSE. II5 



fkeltered by the land of Madagafcar. We favv 

 floating prodigious heaps of the largelfc of all 

 the fpecies of fea-weed, the fucus pyriferits ; it 

 had no doubt been detached from the rocks 

 which ikirt this large illand. This fucus, which 

 is feveral decimeters long, has for the petiole of 

 its upper leaves, a protuberance filled with air, 

 which ferves to buoy it on the furface of the 

 water ; this is the mean which nature employs 

 to make it incline to raife itfelf from the bottom 

 of the fea in proportion as it grows. 



About five o'clock in the afternoon we were 

 furrounded by a great number of whales, which 

 approached us within the diflance of at leaft a 

 hectometer. The Americans come fometimes 

 into thefe feas in order to catch thefe enormous 

 fifties ; the oil which they extract from them 

 is an ample indemnification for the expenfes of 

 the outfit of their fhips. 



The depoiitions of Captains Magon Lepinay 

 and Preaudet had determined M. D'Entrecaf- 

 teaux to proceed as quickly as poffible to the 

 Admiralty I Hands, where he thought that he 

 might arrive before the return of the eaft mon- 

 lbon, after having paiied to the northward of 

 New Holland ; but we had made very little 

 progrefs, fince, on the 6th of March, we had 

 not reached the 44th degree of eaft longitude. 

 The fear of being detained at the Moluccas 

 1 2 during 



