LINE.

The forenoon of January 13th was employed in the performance of the usual
ceremonies on crossing the line, a custom now happily falling into
desuetude--I allude to it merely for the purpose of mentioning its
unfortunate consequences in the present instance; for, although the whole
proceeding was conducted with the greatest good humour, we had soon
afterwards to lament the occurrence of a fatal case of pleurisy, besides
another scarcely less severe, believed by the medical officers to have
been induced by forcible and continued submersion in what is technically
called the pond, one part of the performance which novices are obliged to
submit to during these marine Saturnalia.

The most interesting occurrence in natural history during the passage, in
addition to the usual accompaniments of flying fish, dolphins, physaliae
and velellae, was our finding, in the neighbourhood of the equator,
considerable numbers of a rare British bird, Thalassidroma leachii, a
species of storm-petrel, not before known to extend its range to the
tropics; it was distributed between the tropic of Cancer and latitude 5
degrees South.

As we approached the South American coast, the rates of several of our
seventeen chronometers (fifteen Government and two private ones) were
found to have strangely altered, thus reducing the value of our meridian
distance between Madeira and Rio; this effect was ascribed to the firing
of shotted guns when exercising at general quarters, a practice which in
consequence was not afterwards repeated.

RIO DE JANEIRO.

January 23rd.

I shall not soon forget my first view of the shores of the new world. The
morning was beautifully fine, and with a light breeze scarcely sufficient
to cause a ripple on the water, we were slipping past the high and
remarkable promontory of Cape Frio, which at first appeared like an
island. A long beach of glittering sand stretched away to the westward,
and was lost in the distance; behind this a strip of undulating country,
clad here and there in the richest green, was backed by a range of
distant wooded hills, on which many clumps of palms could be
distinguished. Few harbours in the world present a more imposing entrance
than that of Rio de Janeiro. Several islands lie off the opening, and on
either side the coast range terminates in broken hills and ridges of
granite, one of which, Pao d'Acucar, the Sugarloaf of the English, rises
at once from near the water's edge to the he