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she was so bright that the captain took her altitude with the 
sextant soon after her meridian passage. A little before 
noon on this day we rounded Cape St. Vincent, hut shortly 
before doing so, and when off Cape Sagres, we ran through 
several large patches of the gulf weed or fucus natans. I 
could not be mistaken in this weed, and my judgment was 
corroborated by the captain, who is an old East Indian 
commander, and who told me also, but without mentioning 
dates, that he has on several occasions seen this [weed in 
the same place before, and even has at times seen it inside of 
the Gut of Gibraltar. If this be so, the statement which is, 
if I remember rightly, made by Maury that it is hardly ever 
found except on the right of the axis of the Gulf stream, 
must be incorrect, — and drains of the stream must find their 
way more commonly than is generally imagined on to the 
coast of Portugal. 
Connected as I think with this, we have had dense fogs 
along the coast, from Cape Espichel to this side of Cape 
Finisterre, clearing during the day, but settling down in the 
afternoon and night, except off Finisterre, where the sun 
seemed unable to pierce them. 
On the 9th September, on the passage up from Gibraltar 
to Genoa, we were in the morning off the Hyeres Islands, 
near Toulon, our distance from them when abeam being 
about twelve miles. We steered E.N.E. by compass all day 
until 7 p.m., the long, at noon being by chron. G° 54' E., lat. 
observed 43° 00', variation by amplitude of the sun at sunrise, 
including deviation 16° 26' W. At sundown, Cape Della 
Mele being on the port bow, and the land composed of spurs 
of the Maritime Alps, being about fifteen miles distant, we 
found by an observation of Polaris that the variation, 
including deviation as before, had increased to 22°, and the 
captain told me that he had on three or four other occasions 
found the same thing, or rather had found that the ship 
steered by compass had not at this particular point made a 
