those regions. In application it was remarked, that if we would not lament having crossed the line of being, nor fear crossing the line of death, we should be concerned to cross the line of regeneration; that when we fail on earth we may be received into everlasting habitations, on the right side of the line that divides between heaven and hell.

June 25. We have been agreeably interrupted in our usual occupations, by the sight of many booby-birds (pelicanus sula) wheeling round the vessel, and pouncing upon such flying-fish as happened to be on the wing. Two were shot; one of which was brought on board. It was about two and a half feet in length, and measured five between the extremities of the wings. The inside was nearly all stomach, and contained five flying-fishes, three of them recently swallowed. This, and some other species, have been called boobies, from their excessive stupidity, and the marked silliness of their aspect. When they alight on the yards or rigging of vessels, they shiver, and shake their heads in a peculiar manner, and often suffer themselves to be taken with the hand. They have a remorseless enemy of their own tribe, the man-of-war bird (pelicanus aquilus), which rushes upon them, and by severe blows with its pinions and bill forces the booby to surrender the prey from between its beak, which the spoiler instantly swallows.

June 27. We have made little progress, the inconstancy of the weather, with frequent squalls, furnishing constant work for all hands, in reefing, unreefing, and shifting sails, &c. It seems that the trade winds, notwithstanding their ordinary steadiness, are liable to considerable irregularities, and often perplex the most experienced and skilful navigators. We have lost sight of ursa minor, and the polar star, of course; the pointers are withdrawing, and ursa major, we suppose, will soon disappear.

MAGELLAN CLOUDS.

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June 28. The flying-fish which we have seen for some days past are much larger than those that appeared in higher latitudes. Several storm-birds (procellaria pelagica), or Mother Cary's chickens, have been observed. The spectacle of the nocturnal heavens (under their new aspect, adorned with constellations never seen in the north,) has been occasionally enlivened of late by meteors of great splendour, emerging from immensity, and as suddenly absorbed, leaving darkness more sensibly dark from the effect of the momentary lucid interval.

They

June 30. We descried two whales this morning. were of the Greenland species (balana mysticetus), or right whale, as the sailors significantly call them. These are distinguished from the sperm whale by the manner in which they spout-the former having the spiracle, or breathing hole, at the top of the head; consequently, when they breathe, the column of water which thay eject rises perpendicularly. On the contrary, the sperm whales having the corresponding aperture in the nose, the water is thrown horizontally.

The two which we now saw, not being of the sperm kind, our captain did not order chase of them. We observed one of these "hugest of things that swim the ocean-stream," twice come up to breathe, and each time it cast forth a large volume of water to the height of from twenty to thirty feet, not in a fountain form, but in a cloud of spray that something resembled a small ship, in full sail, at a distance.

July 2. This evening one of the Magellan clouds appeared in the south, about ten o'clock. Of these there are three, called after the Portuguese navigator, whose name is thus recorded at once in heaven and on earth, by being associated with these beautiful phenomena in

20

ANIMALS OF THE DEEP.

the southern hemisphere, and also with the straits at the extremity of the South American peninsula, both of which he discovered on the first voyage made by man round the world, though he unfortunately perished before he had personally accomplished it—leaving that honour to his companion Cano, who brought the vessel home. The nebula before mentioned are of the colour of the galaxy, and probably, like it, composed of a multitude of stars, indiscernibly small. The galaxy itself, from these Austral regions, is much more clearly defined to the eye than in England. It seems a vast attenuated cloud, most delicately white, and apparently nearer to the earth than the starry concave that swells into infinity above, and shines out in the lustre of the brightest constellations of both hemispheres.

July 3. We are now in the latitude of Tahiti, though scarcely half way on our voyage thither; the continent of South America, and many a weary league of ocean, lying between us and the objects of our hopes and our prayers. We have been peculiarly excited, by this slight coincidence, to implore the divine blessing upon ourselves, as the messengers of the churches to the inhabitants of that and the neighbouring islands, where the Redeemer hath "much people ;" and we humbly trust that our visit to those Gentile converts may be one of peace, and love, and joy, to build them up in their most holy faith; as well as to comfort the hearts, and strengthen the hands, of the faithful Missionaries who are labouring among them, and are over them in the Lord.

July 5. The monstrous figures, and unwieldy floundering, of the fin-backed whales (balana physalus), which often reach the length of eighty or ninety feet, but are of no value to the fishers, yielding little oil, greatly

SPERMACETI WHALE.

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amused us this morning, till our attention was diverted— for we are always on the look out for new objects—by the swift and graceful motions of the noddy (sterna stolida), a bird which skims, like a swallow, along the smooth surface of the ocean, clamouring and snapping up the flying-fishes that cross its flight.

July 7. The animals which we have noticed, for the first time, to-day and yesterday, were the toad-fish (lophius histrio), which was wounded by a lance but escaped; small water-spiders, wonderfully nimble in running on the surface, and diving below it when alarmed; and Cape pigeons (procellaria capensis). The latter eagerly pick up bits of lard thrown upon the waves, or are easily caught by a hook and line, baited with the same.

July 8. We find ourselves in the midst of "the great and wide sea, wherein are things innumerable, both great and small," according to the language of the psalmist. The deep was full of animation, and the surface turbulent with the pastime of leviathan and his attendants. Birds of different kinds followed the whales, and perched on their backs when they emerged, to pick off the small insects, like lice, which prey on these enormous creatures, and often make large holes in their well-lined flanks.

July 10. A shoal of sperm whales (physeter macrocephalus) passed us, within a quarter of a mile from the ship. They were known by their brown colour, and their peculiar manner of spouting; but the wind blew too hard to allow our crew to venture after them. This species of whale, as well as the Greenland and fin-backed, grows sometimes to the length of from eighty to ninety feet. The head is immense in proportion to the body; and it is in the cavities of the skull that the valuable matter, called spermaceti, is found, in a liquid form. To obtain this, a hole is made in the

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MARINE RAINBOWS-THE ALBATROSS.

cranium, whence it is taken out with buckets, in very great quantities. Our captain, who has long been employed in this fishery, tells us that he has sometimes laded as much as four and even five hundred gallons of spermaceti, out of the head of a single whale.

July 11. The wind having been boisterous last night, as we were contemplating the agitation of the waters this morning, on the lee quarter, the sun at the same time shining brightly, we were pleased on beholding, for the first time, many marine rainbows, which were formed on the spray, from the tops of some of the higher waves. The prismatic colours were vivid and distinct, though the bows were evanescent. The albatross begins to shew itself on this stage of our course. It is a majestic fowl, especially when seen among the pintado-petrels, great numbers of which are continually on the wing in our wake. The albatrosses that we have met with are of the diomedea exulans species. The wandering albatross, or man-of-war bird, is larger than a swan, weighing from twenty to twenty-eight pounds, with wings extending from ten to thirteen feet. The prevailing colour is white, diversified with black and grey. It is very voracious, devouring its fishy prey whole, in such quantities as sometimes to prevent its rising on the wing, though in general it soars very high.

July 12. The thermometer stood this morning at 55. The anchors were removed from the bow to the deck. We are daily making every necessary preparation for doubling Cape Horn. A pintado was shot, and fell into the water, when immediately the large flock of its companions alighted around it, but for what purpose we did not discover. A small bird, about the size of a thrush, called by mariners the quarter-moon bird, because its