Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/68

62 62 DR. JOHN SCOULER. be more talked & more interest taken in its improvements than in many towns at home. Although the native Bra- zilians are not altogether excluded from these remarks, still they apply with far greater force to the English set- tlers. The people of Rio have probably derived improve- ment from their intercourse with our countrymen. 25th. We are now proceeding rapidly to Cape Horn & are beginning to experience a corresponding change of climate. The Procellaria pelagia has now dissapeared, but we still see abundance of P. Capensis, & the albatross, Diomedea fuliginosa, has begun to make his appearance. By means of a fish hook baited with a small piece of fat pork I succeeded in procuring four individuals of P. ca- pensis. When taken hold of they always vomited a quan- tity of yellow oily matter. This seams to [be] a means of defense they are provided with, as they generally aim it at some one, & throw it to a considerable distance. The aesophagus is capacious & dilatable & is terminated in a large membranous stomach, which leads to a smaller muscular one. The first stomach when cut into was found to contain a great quantity of small crabs which seam to form the principal food of the bird, at least in this part of the ocean. The liver consists of two lobes of nearly equal size, & the convolutions of the intestines are numerous. 29th. The weather very cold the thermometer is now down to 50, certainly a great change to those who had been accustomed to a temperature of 80 for three months. During the time we were becalmed today vast quantity of seaweed floated past, which we suspected might be carried of[f] the coast by the current of the La Plata. We suc- ceeded in procuring a large mass of this fucus. The roots of this plant were a treasure to the zoologist, & might be called a menagerie of marine animals. We obtained two sp. of shell, three Asterias, an Echinus, two sp. of Cancer & Heruda [?] & several other articulated animals.