1773.
January.
was a novelty to us, who were used to see all the other aquatic birds of this climate keep near the surface of the sea. The next evening, and on the 29th, we had several porpesses passing by us with amazing swiftness in all directions. They were pied, and had a large blotch of white on the sides, which came almost up to the back behind the dorsal fin. Their velocity was at least triple that of our vessels, though we now went at the rate of seven knots and a half. In the afternoon we saw a small black and white bird, which some called an ice-bird, and others a murr, and which seldom or never go out of sight of land; but as we could not come near enough to examine it more accurately, we rather believed that it might be a species of petrel. We stood however off and on this night and the next, finding the sea very moderate, though the wind blew very fresh. We were the more induced to take this precaution as we had received intelligence at the Cape of Good Hope of a discovery of land hereabouts, by the French captains M. de Kerguelen and M. de St. Allouarn, in January 1772.
As the journal of that voyage has been suppressed in France, I shall here insert such particulars as were communicated to us by several French officers at the Cape of Good Hope. M. de Kerguelen, a lieutenant in the French navy, commanding the vessel (flute) la Fortune, and having with him a smaller vessel (gabarre) le Gros Ventre, com-manded
