ALASS STRAIT. 197 



Jan. 16. -The same weather continued, but 

 we fetched into the mouth of Alass strait, about 

 four miles to windward of the Timor Yung Islands, 

 and ran up along them. As soon as we had fairly 

 entered the strait, the weather improved very 

 much, but at the same time the wind fell and it 

 was soon nearly calm. It was then a really curious 

 sight to observe the ship drifting to the northward 

 with the current, or exactly contrary to her apparent 

 course. A gentle breeze still kept our sails occasion- 

 ally full and gave us steerage way through the water, 

 so that with our head to the southward, we appeared 

 to be slowly moving in that direction. On looking 

 at the low Timor Yung Islands on our port hand, 

 however, and comparing them with the high land 

 of Sumbawa beyond, the retrograde motion of the 

 ship was found to be so rapid as to produce the 

 most singular effect. It looked exactly as if the 

 islands were drifting rapidly past us, and as the 

 stern movement of the ship through the air caused 

 the sails to be still further bellied out, as if a pretty 

 fair breeze was blowing, the aspect of things, as we 

 looked from the sails to the land and the apparently 

 still water alongside, was not a little bewildering. I 

 could easily believe an ignorant and superstitious 

 person would have set the whole down to enchant- 

 ment. 



All the boats were now lowered to tow us towards 

 the western side of the strait, where the current is 

 much weaker, but they had hardly commenced 



