Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/122

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quaker bird, from its having a greyish-brown colour. Many birds of all these different species surrounded us on the 8th of December, the wind still continuing very high, and the sea very turbulent. We now likewise saw pinguins for the first time, and some bunches of sea-weed, of the species called the sea-bamboo (fucus buccinalis Lin.). These appearances greatly favoured the hope of meeting with land, as it had hitherto been held uncontroverted that weeds, especially rockweeds, (such as these were) and pinguins were never to be met with at a great distance from shores; but experience has shewn that these prognostics are not to be relied upon, and probably derive all their credit from single accidental proofs in their favour, supported by the name of some celebrated mariner. Future observations on the nature of floating rock-weeds, and drift-wood, might perhaps lead to some more determinate conclusions; for as these weeds must have been at first detached from the rocks on which they grew, it is probable that from the degree of freshness or of putridity which