MAR. 1769 OCEANIC LIFE 65 



belonged to the birds, and came off with them from the land. 

 I found also this day a large Sepia, or cuttlefish, lying in the 

 water, just dead, but so pulled to pieces by the birds that 

 its species could not be determined. Only this I know, 

 that of it was made one of the best soups I ever ate. It 

 was very large; and its arms, instead of being like the 

 European species, furnished with suckers, were armed with 

 a double row of very sharp talons, resembling in shape those 

 of a cat, and like them, retractable into a sheath of skin, 

 from whence they might be thrust at pleasure. 



The weather has now become pleasantly warm, and the 

 barnacles on the ship's bottom seem to regenerate, very 

 few of the old ones remaining alive, but young ones without 

 number, scarcely bigger than lentils. 



5th. It now begins to be very hot; thermometer 70, 

 and damp, with prodigious dews at night, greater than any 

 I have felt. This renews our uncomfortably damp situation, 

 everything beginning to mould, as it did about the equinoc- 

 tial line in the Atlantic. 



*7th. No albatrosses have been seen since the 4th, and 

 for some days before that we had only now and then a 

 single one in sight, so we conclude that we have parted with 

 them for good and all. 



llth. A steady breeze had blown during the last three 

 days, and there was no sea at all ; from whence we con- 

 cluded that we had passed the line drawn between the Great 

 South Sea and the Pacific Ocean by the Council of the 

 Eoyal Society ; notwithstanding we are not yet within the 

 tropics. 



13th. I saw a tropic bird for the first time hovering over 

 the ship, but flying very high : if my eyes did not deceive 

 me it differed from that described by Linnaeus (Phaeton 

 aetherius), in having the long feathers of his tail red. The 

 servants with a dipping net took Mimus wlutator and 

 Phyllodoce velella, both exactly the same as those we saw in 

 the Atlantic Ocean (lat. 30 45', long. 126 23' 45"). 



15th. This night there was an occupation' of Saturn by 

 the moon, which Mr. Green observed, but was unlucky in 



F 



