156 C O O K’s V O y A G E. 
tended to fleer N. W. till I had made the fouth coaft of New 
Guinea, deiigning, if poilible, to touch upon it j but upon 
meeting with theie Ihoals, I altered my courfe, in hopes of 
finding a clearer channel, and deeper water. In this I fuc- 
ceedea, for by noon our depth of water was gradually in- 
creafed to feventeen fathom. Our latitude was now by obfer- 
vation io° io' 8. ; and our longitude 220° 12' W. No land 
was in fight. We continued to fleer weft till fun-fet, our 
depth of water being from twenty-leven to twenty-three fa- 
thom : we then ihortened fail, and kept upon a wind all 
night : four hours on one tack, ana four on another. At 
day-light, we made all the iail we could, and fleered W. N. 
W. till eight o'clock, and then N. W. At noon, our lati- 
tude by oblervation was 9 0 56' S. ; longitude 221° W. ; va- 
riation 2 0 30' E. We continued our N. W. courfe till funfet, 
when we again Ihortened lail, and hauled clofe upon a wind 
to the northward : our depth of water was twenty-one fathom. 
At eight, we tacked and flood to the fouthward till twelve ; 
then flood to the northward with little lail till day-light : 
our foundings were from twenty-live to feventeen fathom, 
the water growing gradually fhailow as we flood to the north- 
ward. At this time we made fail and flood to the north, in 
order to make the land of New Guinea: from the time of our 
making fail till noon, the depth of water gradually decreas- 
ed from feventeen to twelve fathom, with a itoney 2nd fhelly 
bottom. Our latitude by oblervation was now 8° 52' S. 
which is in the fame parallel as that in which the fouthern 
parts of New Guinea are laid down in the charts ; but there 
are only two points fo far to the louth, and I reckoned that 
we were a degree to the weftward of them both, and therefore 
did not fee the land which trends more to the northward. We 
found the fea here to be in many j. arts covered with a brown 
fcu-m, fuch as failors generally call fpawn. When I firfl faw 
it, I was alarmed, fearing that we were among Ihoals ; but 
upon founding, we found the fame depth of water as in other 
places. This feum was examined both by Mr. Banks and 
Dr. Solander, but they could not determine what it was : it 
was formed of innumerable fmall particles, not more than 
half a line in length, each of which in the microfcope appear- 
ed to conftft of thirty or forty' tubes ; and each tube was di- 
vided through its whole length by fmall partitions into many 
cells, like the tubes of the conferva : they were fuppofed to 
belong to the vegetable kingdom, becaufe upon burning them 
they produced no fmell like that of an animal fubflance. 1 he 
fame appearance had been obfervtd upon the coaft of Biazil 
and New Holland, but never at any conftderable diftance 
from the fliore. In the evening a fmall bird hovered about 
the ihip, and at night, fettling among the rigging, was taken. 
