versation. Thus situated, an
occasional spell of squally weather is by no means uninteresting:--the
lowering aspect of the sky--the foaming surges, which come rolling on,
threatening to overwhelm the tall ship, and bury her in the fathomless
abyss of the ocean--the laugh of the gallant tars, when a sea sweeps the
deck and drenches them to the skin--all these incidents, united, rather
amuse the voyager, and tend to dispel the inanity with which he is
afflicted. During these periods, I have been for hours watching the
motions of the "stormy petrel" (_procellaria pelagica_), called by
sailors, "mother Carey's chickens." These birds are seldom seen in calm
weather, but appear to follow the gale, and when it blows most heavily
they are seen in greatest numbers. The colour is brown and white; the size
about that of the swallow, whose motions oh the wing they resemble. They
skim over the surface of the roughest sea, gliding up and down the
undulations with astonishing swiftness. When they observe their prey, they
descend flutteringly, and place the feet and the tips of the wings on the
surface of the water. In this position I have seen many of them rest for
five or six seconds, until they had completed the capture. The petrel is
to be seen in all parts of the Atlantic, no matter how distant from land;
and the oldest seaman with whom I have conversed on the subject, never saw
one of them rest. Humboldt says, that in the Northern Deserta, the
petrels hide in rabbit burrows.

A few days' sail brought us into the "Gulf stream," the influence of which
is felt as high as the 43 deg. north latitude. We saw a considerable
quantity of _fucus natans_, or gulf weed, but it generally was so far from
the vessel, that I could not contrive to procure a sprig. Mr. Luccock, in
his Notes on Brazil, says, that "if a nodule of this weed, taken fresh from
the water at night, is hung up in a small cabin, it emits phosphorescent
light enough to render objects visible." He describes the leaves of this
plant as springing from the joints of the branches, oblong, indented at
the edges, about an inch and a half long, and a quarter of an inch broad.
Humboldt's description is somewhat different: he calls it the "vine-leaved
fucus;" says, "the leaves are circular, of a _tender_ green, and indented
at the edges, stem brown, and three inches long."--What I saw of this
weed rather agrees with that described by Humboldt--the leaves were
shaped like the vine leaf