ſtores, and they began to mend. In our courſe, land birds, frequently flew on board, particularly ſmall grey owls, about the ſize of a black-bird; we were viſited alſo by large horned owls, and brown hawks, as well as ſome of the ſize of our ſparrow-hawks. They did not, however, come in ſuch numbers as when we were off the Tres Marias and the Coaſt of California. From the above circumſtances we were diſpoſed to believe, we were in the vicinity of land: But I was more particularly encouraged in my hopes of ſeeing land, when, in Latitude 20° 25′, and Longitude 113° 27′ Weſt, having fallen in with five or ſix wild ducks, the whaling maſter purſued them for ſome time in the boat; but, though they were not ſhy, he was not ſo fortunate as to kill one of them. Having joined the track of my former voyage in the Argonaut from St. Blas, which ſtretched 4° 30′ more to the Weſtward in the ſame Latitude, I gave up the idea of the iſland, which was the object of my immediate ſearch, laying to the Weſtward of me; and not falling in with it on my return to Socorro, I cannot account for its ſituation, unleſs, according to the opinion of ſome modern hydrographers, it ſhould be the Iſland Socoro itſelf.
