i 8 i 
A 
THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
19th, the thermometer, in the day-time, remained at the 1779. 
freezing point, and at four in the morning fell to 29 0 . If 
the reader will take the trouble to compare the degree of Monday 19. 
heat, during the hot fultry weather we had at the begin¬ 
ning of this month, with the extreme cold which we now 
endured, he will conceive how leverely fo rapid a change 
muft have been felt by us. 
In the gale of the 18th, we had fplit almoft all the fails 
we had bent, which being our fecond bell fuit, we were 
now reduced to make ufe of our laft and belt fet. To add 
to Captain Clerke’s difficulties, the fea was in general fo 
rough, and the ffiips fo leaky, that the fail-makers had no 
place to repair the fails in, except his apartments, which, 
in his declining Hate of health, was a ferious inconvenience 
to him. 
- On the 20th, at noon, being in latitude 49 0 45' North, Tuefday 20, 
and longitude 161 0 15' Eaft; and eagerly expecting to fall 
in with the coaffc of Alia, the wind fhifted fuddenly to the 
North, and continued in the fame quarter the following 
day. However, although it retarded our progrefs, yet the 
fair weather it brought was no fmall refrelhment to us. 
In the forenoon of the 21ft, we faw a whale, and a land- Wednef. 21. 
bird ; and, in the afternoon, the water looking muddy, we 
founded, but got no ground with an hundred and forty 
fathoms of line. During the three preceding days, we faw 
large flocks of wild-fowl, of a fpecies refembling ducks. 
This is ufually conlidered as a proof of the vicinity of 
land; but we had no other ligns of it, fmce the 16th; 
in which time we had run upward of an hundred and fifty 
leagues. 
On the 22d, the wind fhifted to the North Eaft, attended Thurfday 22, 
with mifty weather. The cold was exceedingly fevere, and 
the 
