66 
PORTER’S JOURNAL, 
that had been lying about the ship, were carefully collected, as. 
some suspicions of my intentions of doubling Cape Horn, had got 
among the crew. Believing that we should have but little use for 
our light sails, until we doubled the cape, I caused the sky-sails, 
royal studding-sails, and such other sails as are only fit for tropi¬ 
cal weather, to be unbent and put below. 
In the course of our run, since leaving St. Catharines, we have 
frequently discovered those yellow tracks in the ocean, extending 
for leagues, and called by seamen the sperm of whales; whether 
they attribute it to the proper cause, I cannot say. I am inform¬ 
ed, however, that whales have been known to disgorge large quan¬ 
tities of a yellow substance, which floats on the surface of the 
water ; and I think it not unlikely, that it may be this we so oft¬ 
en met with. To me, it had the appearance of dirty oil; and the 
water did not appear coloured more than two or three feet deep. 
All the tracks we met with extended in a line with the coast, and 
as far as the sight could extend ; and from this circumstance, if 
f had not been well assured, that they were caused by whales 
I should have believed, that it had been produced by a scum, 
brought from the coast, by currents ; our distance, however, and 
their extreme regularity, would serve, in some measure, to des¬ 
troy this belief; besides, it does not seem likely that one tide 
would produce more than one of those appearances ; whereas, we 
frequently met three, and sometimes more, only a mile or two 
distant, in fines parallel to each other. They seldom were more 
than the width of the ship, and have much the appearance of 
shoals at first sight. 
From the 28th January until the 3d February, the w r eather 
was very unsettled ; and during that time we had repeated calms, 
and heavy blows, from every part of the compass, and frequent¬ 
ly accompanied with rain. Indeed the eclipse of the sun, to take 
place on the 1st, gave us reason to expect unsettled weather; 
and I had taken measures to prepare the ship to meet the worst, 
by sending down our royal-masts and rigging; unreaving all 
our running rigging, not absolutely necessary ; sending every 
heavy article out of the tops, as well as all the light sails; such 
as royals, stay-sails, top-gallant studding-sails, See.; and diminish- 
