whales’ food. 
75 
accompanied by the blinding “spoon-drift,” the wild 
screams of sea birds, and the roar of the electric strife 
overhead : nature then assumes her placid aspect, we set 
our sails, and continue our course “ in gladness.” 
The invariable direction of the wind on the coast of 
Africa, E.N.E., during these tornadoes, causes every vessel 
to run away from them without danger, as they blow from 
the shore; and their short duration does not carry them far 
out of their course. As our ships were of iron, some appre- 
hended greater danger from the lightning; but thisveryfact, 
perhaps, was the cause of safety — humanly speaking — 
for they were complete conductors, fore and aft, and there 
was possibly a constant current of the electric fluid, pass- 
ing through them during the continuance of the tornado. 
We passed a quantity of the so-called “ whales’ food,” 
a collection of small brown particles, like dust, some 
floating on the surface of the water on examination 
appeared to be minute filamentous Confervee. The 
increased temperature of the sea shewed we were 
within the influence of the Gulf-stream, though little of 
the gulf weed {Fucus natans) was to be seen. When 
passing the mouths of the rivers Nunez and Ponea, 
even at the distance of sixty miles from land, a long 
line of foam was seen, like breakers, marking the 
boundary of the strife between the sea and the immense 
volume of fresh water poured from these rivers, and by 
which it is overcome. 
Sdtwdtty, June 26. — On approaching the anchorage 
at Sierra Leone, all were agreeably surprised with the 
