Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 001.djvu/16

 Vertue for cuttings, lameness, &c., the part affected being anointed therewith. One thing more he related, not to be omitted, which is, that having told, that the time of catching these Fishes was from the beginning of March, to the end of May, after which time they appeared no more in that part of the Sea: he did, when asked, whither they then retired, give this Answer, That it was thought, they went into the Weed-beds of the Gulf of Florida, it having been observed, that upon their Fins and Tails they have store of Clams or Barnacles, upon which, he said, Rock-weed or Sea-tangle did grow a hand long; many of them having been taken of them, of the bigness of great Oyster-shels, and hung upon the Governour of Bermudas his Pales.

The Relation lately made by Major Holmes, concerning the success of the Pendulum-Watches at Sea (two whereof were committed to his Care and Observation in his last voyage to Guiny by some of our Eminent Virtuosi, and Grand Promoters of Navigation) is as followeth;

The said Major having left that Coast, and being come to the Isle of St. Thomas under the Line accompanied with four Vessels, having there adjusted his Watches, put to Sea, and sailed Westward, seven or eight hundred Leagues, without changing his course; after which, finding the Wind favourable, he steered towards the Coast of Africk, North-North-East. But having sailed upon that Line a matter of two or three hundred Leagues, the Masters of the other Ships, under his Conduct, apprehending that they should want Water, before they could reach that Coast, did propose to him to steer their Course to the Barbadoes, to supply themselves with Water there. Whereupon the said Major, having called the Master and Pilots together, and caused them to produce their Journals and Calculations, it was found, that those Pilots did differ in their reckonings from that of the Major, one of them eighty Leagues, another about an hundred, and the third, more; but the Major judging by his Pendulum-Watches, that they were only some thirty Leagues distant from the