43' E. The calm continued till noon the next day, during which time we
observed the variation to be 10 deg. 33' E. I now ordered the carpenters to
work to caulk the decks. As we had neither pitch, tar, nor rosin, left to
pay the seams, this was done with varnish of pine, and afterwards covered
with coral sand, which made a cement far exceeding my expectation. In the
afternoon, we had a boat in the water, and shot two albatrosses, which were
geese to us. We had seen one of this kind of birds the day before, which
was the first we observed since we had been within the tropic. On the 7th,
at one p.m. a breeze sprung up at south; soon after it veered to, and fixed
at S.E. by S., and blew a gentle gale, attended with pleasant weather.
We stretched to W.S.W., and next day at noon were in the latitude of 28 deg.
25', longitude 170 deg. 26' E. In the evening, Mr Cooper haying struck a
porpoise with a harpoon, it was necessary to bring-to, and have two boats
out, before we could kill it, and get it on board. It was six feet long; a
female of that kind, which naturalists call dolphin of the ancients, and
which differs from the other kind of porpoise in the head and jaw, having
them long and pointed.
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