Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/351

] fresh water. On the contrary supposition, it would not be easy to explain this phœnomenon.

9th. The limpidity of the sea-water was very much diminished, during this day, by a fucus, the filaments of which were very loose and short. I met with it again on the 6th of September, and shall afterwards speak of it more particularly.

We found sharks very numerous in those parts. We caught several of the species squalus carcharias, which is the most extensively diffused through the ocean. One of them, of a moderate size, astonished us by its voracity. Although lacerated by four hooks, which it had taken within the space of half an hour, it followed us, till it was hooked successfully.

Being near New Guinea, and but eight minutes distant from the Line, the thermometer only indicated 25°, although we suffered a heat much more oppressive than that which is experienced in Europe, when the thermometer is at

the