CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 45 



be an enormous difference in their sizes. The tunny- 

 fish arriving at the weight of 8 to 12 cwt. while the largest 

 albicore I have ever seen taken in the Atlantic weighed but 

 1601 bs. and the most common weight was between 30 and 

 40lbs. and these latter Avere evidently full grown fish. 



On the 11th we had full moon, and the same day and the 

 next, such heavy rains fell, that I feared the wet season had 

 already set in to the north of the line, we being on this day 

 in 2j° N. and 1 j° E. By a rain guage made on board, we 

 found that, on the morning of the 12th, between 1 and 

 4 o'clock, the water that fell from the heavens was equal to 

 3^ inches. On this day died Joseph Burgess, seaman, of 

 the Congo ; on opening him, his death was found to have 

 been occasioned by a disease of the heart caused by the 

 ancient rupture of a blood vessel. 



Though the rains lasted but two days, seven of the trans- 

 port's crew Avere already attacked by fevers, more or less 

 serious, all of which were to be traced to their sleeping on 

 the wet decks, and to the neglect of chansinc; themselves 

 after being exposed to the rain during the day. The almost 

 inevitable bad consequences of carelessness in these res- 

 pects, may be estimated by the state of the thermometer at 

 night in various jiarts of the ship. In the space called 

 between deck, where the people slept, it was 88°, in my 

 cabin 79° or 80°. On deck 73° to 77°. The great evapo- 



