52 CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



than rain, began to fall, and continued the whole night, 

 with so sensible a degree of cold, that instead of melting 

 under an equinoctial sun in the lightest cloathing, as 

 our gentlemen expected, they were glad to resume their 

 woolens. 



The albicores which had accompanied us in vast shoals to 

 the edge of soundings, and were taken in such numbers, 

 that besides being consumed fresh to satiety, the crews of 

 both vessels pickled and salted several barrels, now entirely 

 disappeared, and with them the sea birds ; the white colour 

 of the water changed to the oceanic blue before we struck 

 soundings, the marine animals much decreased, and the sea 

 lost a great portion of its luminosity. 



From the 3d to the 8th we were plagued with light atrs, 

 veerino; towards midnio-ht to the west as far as S. W., and 

 having for an hour or two sufficient strength to send the 

 ship two or three miles an hour, then again dying away to 

 light airs, which in the morning veered to south and S.S.E. ; 

 these variations being the only signs of the mutual re-action 

 of the land and sea on the atmosphere ; and indeed we ex- 

 perienced similar variations morning and evening since 

 making Prince's island. 



The nature of this part of the coast is doubtless the cause 

 of the want of more marked alteruale breezes from the laud 



