$% VSE OF METEOROLOGICAL OKSERVATIONS TO NAVIGATORS, 



Cansequence. but in a few days after one of the strongest of the naen, being 

 etrployed in this storeroom, fainted away, and was with dif- 

 ficulty recovered. This accident, which I had so clearly 

 foreseen, determined the captain. He ordered the store- 

 room to be cleared, and the stores to be examined. More 

 than hdW the adaubages were rotten: all the dried fruits had 

 fermented ; the oils and fcUs had run from all the vessels, and 

 some of them were obliged to be thrown into the sea. It was 

 found necessary to clean the storeroom in the manner t at 

 iirst proposed, and I set the greater value on my observations. 



"^Htt* fact Ion of On the 1st of January, ISOl, I found in the gunroom a 



|KHit«e3, large chest of potatoes, belonging to the gunner, which, 



being stowed under the tiller, had rotted there, and diffused 

 a noisome smell throughout that close place. With this I 

 acquainted the captain, who ordered them to be thrown into 

 tbe s€a, and the gunroom to be cleaned and fumigated, 



and ©f canots* 0« the 10th of the same month I found a cask of carrots, 

 belonging to the raidshipmen's mess, which had been stowed 

 in the gunroom, and, having been forgotten, had rotted there. 



OU clieess. ^" ^^^ 20th 1 procured a large chest of old cheese, that 



had just been opened in the gunroom, to be removed to a 

 place that was more roomy, and better ventilated. 



Sulphuretted The same day the extreme heat and moisture in the hold, 



fcidfogeng4sm ajj^ ^|,(. suffocating smell of sulphuretted hidrogen prevail- 



* ing there, rendered it incumbent on me to acquaint the 



captain with itj and to request him, to order the water to 



be pumped out, and fresh to be thrown in. This was im- 



mediately done. 



m-ii. t&e gua- It has been seen, that sulphuretted hidrogen gas was 



Koom- several times produced in abundance in the gunroom, and 



still more in the liold: perhaps it may be necessary, to point 

 out its origin. 



|j»«)«iain. However nicely the seams of a ship may be caulked, it is 



impossible but more or less water will penetrate them, par- 

 ticularly in hard gales, when the seams open, as the sailors 

 say, from the shock of the waves. Hence independent of 

 accidents, there is a permanent cause of more or less water 

 accumulating at the bottom of the ship. In the same place 

 are stowed those pigs of iron, that are employed as ballast. 

 From the simple action of water op this metal, ^n evolution 



of 



