A V OYAGE T O 
256 
Februar a ^° a PP eare< ^* ^ we k a d not known, that the continent 
of North America was not far diftant, we might, from the 
few figns of the vicinity of land hitherto met with, have 
concluded, that there was none within fome thoufand 
leagues of us. We had hardly feen a bird, or any other 
oceanic animal, fince we left Sandwich Iflands. 
Sunday'] the ill of March, our latitude being now 44 0 49' North, 
and our longitude 228° Eaft, we had one calm day. This 
was fucceeded by a wind from the North, with which I 
hood to the Eaft clofe hauled, in order to make the land. 
According to the charts, it ought not to have been far from 
us. It was remarkable, that we fhould ftill carry with us 
fuch moderate and mild weather, fo far to the Northward, 
and fo near the coaft of an extenftve continent, at this time 
of the year. The prefent feafon either muft be uncommon 
for its mildnefs, or we can aflign no reafon, why Sir Francis 
Drake fhould have met with fuch fevere cold, about this la¬ 
titude, in the month of June *. Vifcaino, indeed, who was 
near the fame place, in the depth of winter, fays little of 
the cold, and fpeaks of a ridge of fnowy mountains, fome- 
where on the coaft, as a thing rather remarkable t. Our 
feeing fo few birds, in comparifon of what we met with in 
the fame latitudes, to the South of the line, is another lingu¬ 
lar circumftance, which muft either proceed from a fcarcity 
of the different forts, or from a deficiency of places to reft 
upon. From hence we may conclude, that beyond 40° in 
the Southern hemifphere, the fpecies are much more nu¬ 
merous, and the Hies where they inhabit alfo more plenti- 
* See the account of Sir Francis’s voyage, in Campbell’s edition of Harris, Vol. i. 
p. 18. and other Collections. 
t See Torquemada’s Narrative of Vifcaino’s Expedition, in 1602 and 1603, in the fe- 
cond volume of Vanegas’s Hiftory of California, Englifti tranflation, from p. 229. to p. 308. 
fully 
