Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/172

( 147 ) of 38° and 39°; with the wind from the northward, we always found the sea remarkably smooth, but when the southerly wind prevailed, the heavy swell, even in light breezes, evinced the long fetch of the waters, and demonstrated the general tempestuous weather in the high southern latitudes. These circumstances alone would be almost sufficient to refute the opinion of a southern continent, did not the voyages of Capt. Cook put it beyond a doubt.

From the longitude of 125° E. the oceanic birds, which before flitted over the waves in vast numbers, began to decrease, and in 137° scarce one was seen. This being the spring of the southern hemisphere, they, doubtless, now retire to