Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/263

] although our want of it increased as we approached the Torrid Zone. For this beverage we could not substitute wine, which became daily worse, and brandy, which many preferred to wine, rendered a greater quantity of water necessary. Salted provisions increased a thirst, which we had not the means of quenching, and the great quantity of sea-salt introduced into our fluids, had communicated to them a great degree of acrimony. Thus the privation of fresh water is one of the principal causes of the diseases of seamen.

Spotted petrels and many other birds which we saw on the 6th of June, in latitude 34° 47′ S., and longitude 159° 21′ E., made us suppose that we were approaching some island, still too distant to be seen.

11th. About the middle of this day, we thought we saw land at east. After steering in that direction for an hour, the phantom disappeared, and we resumed our course.

15th. We shot a man-of-war bird, which was hovering over the ship. This bird had in its bill one of the species of cuttle fish called sepia loligo. It had probably caught this mollusca, the instant before it received the fatal stroke. In the Mediterranean, I have seen this species of cuttle fish raise itself many feet above the surface of the water,