SOUTH AMERICA. 87 



SECOND JOURNEY. 



IN the year 1816, two days before the vernal SECOND 



J JOURNEY. 



equinox, I sailed from Liverpool for Pernambuco, 



. . Sails for 



in the southern hemisphere, on the coast ofpemam- 

 Brazil. There is little at this time of the year, 

 in the European part of the Atlantic, to engage 

 the attention of the naturalist. As you go down 

 the channel, you see a few divers and gannets. 

 The middle-sized gulls, with a black spot at the 

 end of the wings, attend you a little way into the 

 Bay of Biscay. When it blows a hard gale of 

 wind, the stormy petrel makes its appearance. 

 While the sea runs mountains high, and every 

 wave threatens destruction to the labouring 

 vessel, this little harbinger of storms is seen 

 enjoying itself, on rapid pinion, up and down the 

 roaring billows. When the storm is over, it 

 appears no more. It is known to every English 

 sailor, by the name of Mother Carey's chicken. 

 It must have been hatched in bolus's cave, 

 amongst a clutch of squalls and tempests; for, 

 whenever they get out upon the ocean, it always 

 contrives to be of the party. 



