468 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



afterwards dying away almost entirely, so that we made very 

 little progress throughout the day. I tried the towing-net, 

 but with no result. Eain again set in shortly before ten p.m., 

 and lasted throughout the night, and on the following morn- 

 ing, by way of variety, we had a fresh breeze right in our 

 teeth, compelling us to tack, so that we accomplished very little 

 way. During the afternoon the breeze freshened into a gale, 

 and by the evening we were under reefed topsails, and fre- 

 quently shipped heavy seas. The wind moderated consider- 

 ably during the night, but by the morning of the 25 th 

 freshened again, and was as foul as ever, while a thick mist 

 brooded over the troubled water. Later in the day it was 

 blowing as hard as ever, and great flocks of petrels and alba- 

 trosses were flying round the vessel. By the morning of the 

 26th, however, matters were greatly improved, though the 

 wind was still foul, and we found at noon that we had only 

 made about 250 miles from Monte Video, which was not 

 satisfactory. It was dead calm during the greater part of the 

 27th. In the morning we put over a large dredge in forty 

 fathoms water, and kept it down for about an hour, but with 

 very poor results, one or two specimens of a small JEchinus 

 common in the Strait, a Pagurus, and a minute species of 

 Gasteropod, being the only animals obtained. Early on the 

 28th a favourable breeze arose, and we went along smoothly 

 throughout the day with studding-sails set. On the follow- 

 ing morning (March 1st) it was blowing fresh from the S.E., 

 but we were able to make pretty good progress in the 

 desired direction, and on the 2d we had a fair wind, which 

 helped us materially on our way. The 3d was a beautiful 

 day, but nearly calm. There was a gorgeous sunset in the 

 evening, followed by a fine moonlight night. The 4th was in 

 most respects a repetition of the 3d, while the 5th was a dull 



