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CHAPTER V.
Fresh breeze, N.W.; unmoored at daylight, 1840
July 20.weighed at 8h. 15m. a.m., and stood out to sea, passing close along Terror Reef, over which the sea was breaking, sufficiently indicating the danger, although, owing to the haziness of the weather, we had lost sight of the land, and at two or three miles from it we could not get soundings with fifty fathoms of line.
In the afternoon the freshening breeze reduced us to close-reefed topsails, and the Terror falling far astern about the same time, obliged us to haul the foresail up. We were before night well clear of the land, and the numerous rocky patches that lie a considerable distance from its shores. Upon some of these there is not less than thirty or forty fathoms, but in others the rocks are very near the surface, and unless there be a high sea running, so that it may break over these treacherous shallows, the navigation amongst them is hazardous, more especially as there is usually no anchorage near them, owing to the great depth of water.
A shoal of porpoises was seen, and we passed many floating beds of sea-weed, some of them more than a mile in breadth. The wind had increased