teen or sixteen feet high; several passed entirely across the ship, and altogether not less than fifty were found upon the decks. We could not on this, as on a former occasion, ascribe their visit to the sea washing them into the vessel, the water at the time being quite smooth, and only a moderate breeze blowing.
Whilst running before a strong northerly breeze, Feb. 23we observed heavy clouds gathering to the S.W., and could scarcely reduce our sails before we experienced a most violent squall from that quarter, which was almost immediately succeeded by a calm of short duration. These sudden gusts of wind are not at all indicated by the barometer and are not unfrequently the cause of the loss of masts, when not prepared for in time. The northerly wind resumed its power until about noon, when it again shifted suddenly to the southward, so that we seemed to have got into another region of the variables. Before and during the heavy torrents of rain, which poured down for the next twenty hours with but little intermission, we were surprised that both the barometer and sympiesometer rose steadily. The temperature of the rain (as noticed also on the fifteenth) being 67°, again reduced that of the air from 74°5 to 69°.
In lat. 31° 20′ S. we crossed the meridian of Feb. 27.Greenwich on our eastward course.
Although the south-westerly breeze of the preceding Feb. 29.day hardly amounted to a moderate gale, we found that this morning we had run into a heavy