CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
421 
the cooler one : but for a more particular explanation of this subject, 
the reader is referred to the diagram map, and the chapter on currents 
and whaling. 
On the 12th of April, we arrived off False Bay. The temperature 
of the surface water was reduced to 64°, and the current was setting: 
o 
us rapidly to the north-northwest. The fog and mist that now pre¬ 
vailed, prevented my observations for ascertaining the rate of the cur¬ 
rent from being as accurate as I desired; the results, such as they 
were, gave it a velocity of more than a mile per hour. 
On the 13th, no observations could be obtained on account of the 
fog and mist; and our situation became rather a perplexing one. On 
making trial of the current, we found that it was drifting us to the 
north at the rate of eighteen miles in twenty-four hours. Soundings 
were obtained in eighty-five fathoms. The temperature of the surface 
water fell to 54°. Towards evening it cleared up, and our situation 
w ? as obtained by bearings, which placed us off Snake’s Head, about 
twelve miles to the southward and westward of the Lion’s Head. 
Believing that my only chance of making Table Bay was by keeping 
as close to the shore as possible, I kept the ship on soundings during 
the night, and at daylight stood in through a thick fog for what I felt 
sure must be the position of Green Point. While under way, we fell 
in with a fleet of small fishing-boats lying at anchor. Their crews 
were catching a species of bass, as fast as they could haul in their 
lines. Immense numbers of birds, such as albatrosses, petrels, and 
gulls, surrounded the boats, and were feeding on the small fish and 
offal thrown overboard from them. The fish caught here are salted, 
and being afterwards dried, furnish no inconsiderable portion of the 
food of the lower orders of the colony. One of the fishermen was 
desired to come on board, and after he had satisfied me that some 
reliance might be placed in him as a pilot, he was retained with us. 
tinder his guidance we stood on, and as the fog began to break away 
reached our anchorage, having passed close to the lighthouse and 
Green Point, the western point of Table Bay. The captain of the 
port, Commander Bance, R. N., boarded us soon after we had 
anchored. I was glad to see this gentleman, to whom I felt under 
obligations, for civilities and kindness shown me some eighteen years 
previously, during a cruise off the coast of Peru. 
An officer was despatched by me to call upon, and report our arrival 
to Sir George Thomas Napier, governor of the colony. 
The falling of the ball at the Royal Observatory afforded us an 
opportunity for comparing the time as shown by our chronometers 
2 L 
