Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/87

] having to visit St. Paul's Rocks, we were obliged to run thus far to leeward, or I would have preferred the longitude of about 26° or 27° W., for the strong westerly current is liable to carry ships with a scant trade too near to the coast of Brazil.

This current we found to diminish in strength as we proceeded to the southward, and in the 8th or 9th degree of latitude it gives place to a feeble northerly set.

The Magellhanic clouds and the beautiful constellation of the Southern Cross now became apparent; and although in my estimation the latter is inferior in beauty to several of our northern constellations, yet marking, night after night, by its gradually increasing altitude in the heavens, our advance upon our course, and becoming henceforward the pole-star that was to guide us throughout our researches, even as we hoped, to the utmost navigable limits of the Antarctic Ocean, we could not behold it without sanguine anticipations of the future.

In this part of the tropics we observed large patches of the splendid Pyrosoma, exhibiting a beautiful pale silvery light as we sailed past them: when taken out of the water the light is discontinued, until on irritating any particular part of the creature it again shows itself at that point, and soon pervades the whole animal mass.

As we approached the magnetic equator, or line of no dip, our observations relative to this interesting question were more frequent; and in order