JAN. 1769 OFF TERRA DEL FUEGO 47 



There were also plenty of albatrosses. Indeed, I have ob- 

 served a much greater quantity of birds upon the wing in 

 gales than in moderate weather, owing perhaps to the 

 tossing of the waves, which must render swimming very 

 uneasy. They must be more often seen flying than when 

 they sit upon the water. 



The ship has been observed to go much better since her 

 shaking in the last gale of wind ; the seamen say that it is 

 a general observation that ships go better for being, as they 

 say, loosened in their joints, so much so that in a chase it 

 is often customary to knock down stanchions, etc., to make 

 the ship as loose as possible. 



10th. Seals plentiful to-day, also a kind of bird, 

 different from any we have before seen. It was black, and 

 a little larger than a pigeon, plump like it, and easily known 

 by its flapping its wings quickly as it flies, contrary 

 to the custom of sea-birds in general. This evening a 

 shoal of porpoises of a new species swam by the ship ; 

 they are spotted with large dabs of white, with white under 

 the belly : in other respects, as swimming, etc., they are 

 like common porpoises, only they leap rather more nimbly, 

 sometimes lifting their whole bodies out of the water. 



11th. This morning at daybreak we saw the land of 

 Terra del Fuego. By eight o'clock we were well in with it. 

 Its appearance was not nearly so barren as the writer of 

 Lord Anson's voyage has represented it. We stood along 

 shore, about two leagues off, and could see trees distinctly 

 through our glasses. We observed several smokes, made 

 probably by the natives as a signal to us. 



The hills seemed to be high, and on them were many 

 patches of snow, but the sea-coast appeared fertile, the trees 

 especially being of a bright verdure, except in places exposed 

 to the south-west wind, which were distinguishable by their 

 brown appearance. The shore itself was sometimes beach 

 and sometimes rock. 



12th. We took Beroe incrassata, Medusa limpidissima, 

 plicata and obliquata, Alcyonium anguillare (probably the 

 thing that Shelvocke mentions in his Voyage Bound the 



