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/76

46

ships, at considerable distances from any land. I shall venture another reflection on this incident. In the long solitary hours of an uniform navigation, every little circumstance becomes interesting to the passenger; it is therefore not to be wondered at, if a subject so trifling in itself as putting to death a harmless bird, should affect a heart not yet buffeted into insensibility.

On the 23d, several cetaceous fish, from fifteen to twenty feet long passed the ship, directing their course to the N. and N.W. They were supposed to be grampusses, (delphinus orca). Two days after the same kind of fish, and a number of lesser ones of a brownish colour, called skip-jacks, from leaping frequently out of the water, were observed. The wind for several days past had blown from the N.W. and obliged us to take a S.E. course, so that we were now got to the southward of the coast of Guinea. Several of our navigators, who had frequently crossed the Atlantic, looked upon this as a singular circumstance; and indeed it fairly proves, that though nature in the torrid zone commonly produces regular and constant winds, nevertheless it sometimes deviates even there from general