ched, produced a sensation like the stinging of a nettle. There
was also a red scum on the water, and some of it was taken up to be
examined by Mr. Brown in a microscope. It consisted of minute particles
not more than half a line in length, and each appeared to be composed of
several cohering fibres which were jointed; the joints being of an
uniform thickness, and nearly as broad as long. These fibres were
generally of unequal length, and the extremities of the compound particle
thence appeared somewhat torn. The particles exhibited no motion when in
salt water; and the sole effect produced by immersing them in spirit of
wine was the separation of each into its component fibres.

Until daybreak next morning the wind was unfavourable; but it then veered
round to the south, and enabled us to pass Point Culver. Our situation at
noon, and the bearings taken were these:

Latitude, observed to the north and south, 32 deg. 52' 51"
Longitude reduced up from eight o'clock, 124 58
Point Culver, distant five leagues, S. 78 W.
Small rock under the cliffs, dist. 5 miles, North.
Furthest extreme of the coast, cliffs, N. 39 E.

Our course along the shore was so favoured by the wind that at seven in
the evening we had passed another projecting part of the cliffs, named
POINT DOVER, distant from Point Culver fifty miles; and the extreme in
sight ahead was twenty miles further, and still cliffy. The nearest part
was two or three leagues distant; and the wind being still at south, we
hauled up to it, and at nine o'clock stood back to the westward.

The elevation of these cliffs appeared to be about five hundred feet, and
nothing of the back country was seen above them. In the upper part they
are brown, in the lower part nearly white, and the two _strata_, as also
the small layers of which each is composed, are nearly horizontal. They
were judged to be calcareous, as was the white, grey, and brown sand
which the lead brought up when the bottom was not of coral.

A surveyor finds almost no object here whose bearing can be set a second
time. Each small projection presents the appearance of a steep cape as it
opens out in sailing along; but before the ship arrives abreast of it, it
is lost in the general uniformity of the coast, and the latitude,
longitude, and distance of the nearest cliffs are all the documents that
remain for the construction of a chart. Point Culver and Poin