CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 57 



is also low land, with a saddle hillock in the centre of the ■.^■*-. 

 back ground. The whole of this land is coA'^ered with wood, 

 but is proved to be inhabited by the numerous fires seen 

 on the shore, and '.vhich were probably intended as signals 

 for us to land. 



We now, while at anchor on a sandy botton), took a 

 good number of fish of the Sporiis genus, named by the 

 seamen sea-bream, and light-horsemen, the latter, from a 

 reddish protuberance on the back of the head (fancifully 

 thought to resemble a helmet) ; they Avere taken with the 

 hook close to the ground, and baited with fresh pork or their 

 own livers; the largest weighed 18lbs., and though rather 

 dry and insipid, were infinitely preferable to the albicore 

 and bonito Avith Avhich Ave had been surfeited in the gulf of 

 Guinea. Sea birds had also entirely disappeared, Avith the 

 exception of an occasional tropic bird, and a few of ilf o//«er 

 Cere?/ 's chickens (storm petterel). Numbers of insects of 

 the genus Tipula Avere taken from the surface of the sea. 



The Aveather, though now much less damp than Avhen Ave 

 made the land to the north, Avas still very hazy, and the 

 cold even encreased, the thermometer in the day never 

 rising above 73°, and falling in the night to 67°. As the 

 moon approached the full, the current diminished, and on 

 the 24th a more favourable sea breeze than Ave had hitherto 



I 



