l these animals mix
together, like domestic cattle and poultry in a farm-yard, without one
attempting to molest the other. Nay, I have often observed the eagles
and vultures sitting on the hillocks among the shags, without the
latter, either young or old, being disturbed at their presence. It may
be asked how these birds of prey live? I suppose on the carcases of
seals and birds which die by various causes; and probably not few, as
they are so numerous.
This very imperfect account is written more with a view to assist my own
memory than to give information to others. I am neither a botanist nor a
naturalist; and have not words to describe the productions of nature,
either in the one branch of knowledge or the other.
SECTION V.
_Proceedings after leaving Staten Island, with an Account of the
Discovery of the Isle of Georgia, and a Description of it._
Having left the land in the evening of the 3d, as before mentioned, we
saw it again next morning, at three o'clock, bearing west. Wind
continued to blow a steady fresh breeze till six p.m., when it shifted
in a heavy squall to S.W., which came so suddenly upon us, that we had
not time to take in the sails, and was the occasion of carrying away a
top-gallant mast, a studding-sail boom, and a fore studding-sail. The
squall ended in a heavy shower of rain, but the wind remained at S.W.
Our course was S.E., with a view of discovering that extensive coast
laid down by Mr Dalrymple in his chart, in which is the gulph of St
Sebastian. I designed to make the western point of that gulph, in order
to have all the other parts before me. Indeed I had some doubt of the
existence of such a coast; and this appeared to me the best route for
clearing it up, and for exploring the southern part of this ocean.
On the 5th, fresh gales, and wet and cloudy weather. At noon observed in
57 deg. 9', latitude made from Cape St John, 5 deg. 2' E. At six o'clock p.m.,
being in the latitude 57 deg. 21', and in longitude 57 deg. 45' W., the
variation was 21 deg. 28' E.
At eight o'clock in the evening of the 6th, being then in the latitude
of 58 deg. 9' S., longitude 53 deg. 14' W., we close-reefed our top-sails, and
hauled to the north, with a very strong gale at west, attended with a
thick haze and sleet. The situation just mentioned is nearly the same
that Mr Dalrymple assigns for the S.W. point of the gulph of St
Sebastian. But as we saw neither land, nor signs of land, I was the more
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