l6 JOURNAL OF A 
during the night, and the sea was rather turbident, the spray often 
flying over the sliip. After our morning service, the captain in- 
formed us, that the island of Bonavista, thirty miles from the former, 
was in sight. This island is the most picturesque of any we had hi- 
therto seen. Coming from the north, its first appearance was that 
of two steep hills inclosing alower range; but as we sailed along its 
eastern coast, several ranges of mountains, of beautiful shapes and 
different heights, one after the other, opened to view. Some were 
cones, with craters on their rocky summits. The country below 
them, though here and there showing patches of a green colour, had, 
in general, a very barren appearance. The haziness of the weather 
"would not permit us distinctly to discover any smaller objects. The 
waves also sometimes swelled to such a height, as to hide the island 
for a moment from our view ; but as we passed swiftly along, we were 
much amused by the continual shifting of the scene, exhibiting 
the mountains in ever-varying positions. We were however dis- 
appointed in our hopes of seeing Mayo, another of these islands, a 
thick mist overspreading the horizon about sunset. The strong 
favourable wind continued all night. 
6th. This morning we had a very pleasing exhibition of the won- 
derful agility and swiftness of a host of bottle-nosed porpoises, 
coming from the north. For nearly half an hour they played and 
frisked about the ship's bows, leaping out of the water, pursuing 
each other in all directions, tumbling tail over head, and perform- 
ing all kinds of tricks. They seemed perfectly happy, and bade 
defiance to all attempts to pierce them. They Avere, by guess, from 
three to four feet long. It lightned again in the evening, and du- 
ring the night, but the vrind continued to favour us. 
8th. We were proceeding with a steady breeze in fine weather, 
when about noon the sky became overcast, and very l)lack clouds 
began to rise from the south-east. The captain coming on deck, 
rather alarmed us, by the haste in which he gave orders to shorten 
sail. The swiftness also with which the clouds came rolling on, was 
remarkable, and they brought with them such a sudden gust of 
