EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 



pleafing reflecSlion indeed, and which could not but render 

 me fincerely thankful to Providence. 



About the 14th of April, having paffed the Tropicks, and 

 changed courfe to N.N.E. and N. E. we were becalmed 

 for fome days. 1 ought not to omit that when in about 

 15 degrees N. latitude, we failed through what is vulgariy 

 called the Grafs Sea, from its being covered over with a 

 floating kind of green and yellow weed, called gulpb 

 weeds ; fome of which, when dried in the fun, and fpread 

 between two flieets of paper, are very curious, refembling 

 trees, flowers, flirubs, &:c. and in which are harboured 

 fmall cruftaceous fifli, fcoUops, mufcles, and flielJs of 

 many thoufand different fpecies. Among the laft is often 

 found that wonderful fea reptile, called the hippQcampus^. 

 or fea-horfe, whicli I could compare to nothing better 

 than the chevalier of a chefs-board \ though it is gene- 

 rally larger, and fometimes eight or nine inches in length. 

 The body is compofed of cartilaginous rings : the head, 

 fnout, and mane are incrufled all over ; and the tail, 

 which is curvated upwards in the figure of an termi-- 

 nates in a point. 



On the 19th, the calm flill continuing, we were dally 

 entertained by fwarms of flying fifii, and feveral doradoes 

 and grampufles fwimming and tumbling before and after 

 the fhips, as if delighting to keep us company. The 

 grampus is a fifh of the cetaceous kind, fomething re- 

 fembling the dolphin, but much larger, and approaching 

 the whale in fize, fome being near twenty feet in length,, 

 and prodigioufly fat. This fi(h has forty flrong teeth ; is of 



