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/81

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The next day the albatross, (diomedea exulans) and the pintadas (procellaria capensis), made their first appearance.

On the 11th it was mild and almost calm, after several days of hazy and squally weather, which had probably sharpened the appetite of the sea birds, and especially the pintadas; for these last eagerly swallowed hooks baited with pieces of pork or mutton, and no less than eight of them were caught in a short time. In the evening we observed an eclipse of the moon, of which the end at a medium happened at 6h. 58′ 45″ p.m, our latitude at noon being 34° 45′ south.

The next day we tried the current and the temperature of the sea a third time. We let down the thermometer 100 fathoms, where it continued 20 min. was hauled up in 7 min. more, and then shewed 58 deg. At the surface it stood at 59 deg. and in the air at 60 deg. It being calm, we employed ourselves in the boat with shooting sea-fowl; among which were a small tern, a shear-water, a new species of albatross, and a new petrel: Several animals of the mollusca-tribe likewise came within our reach, together with the helix janthina, a violet-coloured shell, remarkable for the extreme thinness of its texture, which breaks with the least pressure, and seems therefore entirely calculated to keep the open sea, or at least to shun