s hurried on deck to drill for defense in order to prevent
the enemy from mounting the ship.

With many a change of wind and weather, of calm and turbulent sea, of
joyous or anxious feeling, the great sandbanks of New Foundland were
reached on the 20th of June.

A mighty sea of breakers indicates the location of these sandbanks; upon
their precipitous rocky walls covered forty fathoms high by the sea, the
restless ocean waves are beating and are with a like force repelled. The
winds go howling over them; dense, cold fogs always cover these regions.
In order to warm the ships against colliding, the drums, foghorns and
ship bells were resounding day and night on all ships. In order to
prevent their being separated too far from one another a cannon shot was
fired every half hour on the commodore's ship. Nevertheless many ships
drifted from their course; fourteen of them were found by a fire ship
and conducted to Halifax. For three or four days the ships remained in
the vicinity of the sandbanks. The many phenomena seen there increased
the astonishment of the ordinary man concerning the wonders of the sea,
which had here appeared to him: the whale, swimming majestically; and
the spongy mass polyps, scarcely with the organization of a living
creature; multitudes of porpoises, which pursued with amusing leaps out
of the water the course of the flying fish, and the latter then fell
down upon the decks, where they found a more certain death; shoals of
dolphins, which followed the ships with their glittering colors, and
often were reached by the harpoon or other weapon thrown at them; in the
dark night countless brilliant, fiery stripes, generated by a school of
fishes swiftly passing through the waters; turtles, caught for the
tables of the gentlemen; whole swarms of wild ducks; above all the
enormous quantity of cod fish, which had caused several fleets of
French, British and Norwegian fishing smacks to be gathered here, and
now enriched the kitchens of the army fleet.

On the 25th of June the sandbanks were left behind and from the damp,
biting cold, against which even the protection of a fur mantle was of no
avail, the expedition experienced a warm, beautiful day and soon again
many changes of weather. The great number of whales now to be seen
indicated the proximity of the coast of Nova Scotia. A green fir tree,
which was floating on the waters, brought still more joyful tidings. The
ever diminishing depth of the sea on J