Thus a foundation will be laid for it to accumulate to any thickness by falls of fnow, without its being at all neceffary for the fea water to freeze. It may be, by this means, thefe vaft floats of low ice we find in the fpring of the year are formed, and which, after they break up, are carried by the currents to the north. For, from all the obfervations I have been able to make, the currents every where, in the high latitudes, fet to the north, or to the N. E. or N. W.; but we have very feldom found them confiderable,

If this imperfect account of the formation of thefe extraordinary floating islands of ice, which is written wholly from my own obfervations, does not convey fome ufeful hints to an abler pen, it will, however, convey fome idea of the lands where they are formed. Lands doomed by nature to perpetual frigidnefs; never to feel the warmth of the fun's rays; whofe horrible and favage afpect I have not words to defcribe. Such are the lands we have difcovered; what then may we expect thofe to be, which lie ftill farther to the fouth? For we may reasonably fuppofe that we have feen the beft, as lying moft to the north. If any one fhould have refolution and perfeverance to clear up this point by proceeding farther than I have done, I hall not envy him the honour of the difcovery; but I will be bold to fay, that the world will not be benefited by it.

I had, at this time, fome thoughts of revisiting the place where the French difcovery is faid to lie. But then I confidered that, if they had really made this difcovery, the end would be as fully answered as if I

had done it myself. We know it can only be an island; and if we judge from the degree of cold we found in that latitude, it cannot be a fertile one. Befides, this would have kept me two months longer at fea, and in a tempeftudus latitude, which we were not in a condition to ftruggle with. Our fails and rigging were fo much worn, that fomething was giving way every hour; and we had nothing left, either to repair or to replace them. Our provifions were in a state of decay, and confequently afforded little nourishment, and we had been a long time without refreshments. My people, indeed, were yet healthy, and would have chearfully gone wherever I had thought proper to lead them; but I dreaded the scurvy laying hold of them, at a time when we had nothing left to remove it. I must fay farther, that it would have been cruel in me to have continued the fatigues and hardships they were continually expofed to, longer than was abfolutely neceffary. Their behaviour, throughout the whole voyage, merited every indulgence which it was in my power to give them. Ani- ` mated by the conduct of the officers, they fhewed themselves capable of furmounting every difficulty and danger which came in their way, and never once looked either upon the one or the other, as being at all heightened, by our feparation from our confort the Adven

ture.

All thefe confiderations induced me to lay afide looking for the French difcoveries, and to fteer for the Cape of Good Hope; with a refolution, however, of looking for the Ifles of Denia and Marfe

IN

N the afternoon, about four o'clock, we were nearly oppofite Cape Stephens, and had little or no wind. We obferved thick clouds to the S. W. about that time, and faw that it rained on all the fouthern parts of that cape. On a fudden a whitish spot appeared on the fea in that quarter, and a column arofe out of it, looking like a glafs tube; another feemed to come down from the clouds to meet this, and they made a coalition, forming what is commonly called a water-fpout. A little while after we took notice of three other columns, which were formed in the fame manner as the firft. The nearest of all these was about three miles diftant, and its apparent diameter, as far as we could guefs, might be about feventy fathom at the base. We found our thermometer at 56 when this phænomenon first took its rife. The nature of waterfpouts and their caufes being hitherto very little known, we were extremely attentive to mark every little circumstance attendant on this appearance. Their bafe, where the water of the fea was violently

agitated, and rofe in a fpiral form in vapours, was a broad fpot, which looked bright and yellowish when illuminated by the fun. The column was of a cylindrical form, rather encreafing in width towards the upper extremity. These columns moved forward on the furface of the fea, and the clouds not following them with equal rapidity, they affumed a bent or incurvated fhape, and frequently appeared croffing each other, evidently proceeding in different directions; from whence we concluded, that it being calm, each of thefe waterfpouts caufed a wind of its own, At laft they broke one after another, being probably too much diftended by the difference between their motion and that of the clouds. In proportion as the clouds came nearer to us, the fea appeared more and more covered with fhort broken waves, and the wind continually veered all round the compafs, without fixing in any point. We foon faw a fpot on the fea, within two hundred fathom of us, in a violent agitation. The water, in a fpace of fifty or fixty fathoms, moved towards the centre, and their rifing into vapour, by the force of the whirling motion, afcended in a fpiral form towards the clouds. Some hailstones fell on board about this time, and the clouds looked exceedingly black and louring above us. Directly over the whirlpool, if I may fo call the agitated spot on the fea, a cloud gradually tapered into a long flender tube, which feemed to defcend to meet the rifing fpiral, and foon united with it into a ftrait column of a cylindrical form. We could diftinctly obferve the water hurled upwards with the greateft violence

in a fpiral, and it appeared that it left a hollow fpace in the centre; fo that we concluded the water only formed a hollow tube, inftead of a folid column. We were ftrongly confirmed in this belief by the colour, which was exactly like any hollow glafs-tube. After fome time the laft water-fpout was incurvated and broke like the others, with this difference, that its dif junction was attended with a flash of lightning, but no explofion was heard. Our fituation during all this time was very dangerous and alarming; a phenomenon which carried fo much terrific majesty in it, and connected as it were the fea with the clouds, made our oldeft mariners uneafy and at a lofs how to behave; for most of them, though they had viewed waterfpouts at a distance, yet had never been fo befet with them as we were; and all without exception had heard dreadful accounts of their pernicious effects, when they happened to break over a ship. We prepared indeed for the worst, by cluing up our topfails; but it was the general opinion that our mats and yards must have gone to wreck if we had been drawn into the vortex. It was hinted that firing a gun had commonly fucceeded in breaking water-fpouts, by the strong vibration it caufes in the air; and accordingly a four pounder was ordered to be got ready, but our people being, as ufual, very dilatory about it, the danger was paft before we could try this experiment. How far electricity may be confidered as the cause of this phænomenon, we could not determine with any precision; fo much how ever feems certain, that it has fome connection with it, from the flafh

of lightning, which was plainly obferved at the bursting of the last column. The whole time, from their firft appearance to the diffolution of the laft, was about three quarters of an hour. It was five o'clock when the latter happened, and the thermometer then flood at 54° or 23 degrees lower, than when they began to make their appearance. The depth of water we had under us was thirty-fix fathom. The place we were in was analogous to moft places where waterfpouts have been obferved, inafmuch as it was in a narrow fea or Arait. Dr. Shaw and Thevenor faw them in the Mediterranean and Perfian Gulph; and they are common in the West Indies, the Straits of Malacca, and the Chinese fea. Upon the whole, we were not fortunate enough to make any remarkable difcoveries in regard to this phænomenon; all our observations only tend to confirm the facts already noticed by others, and which are fo largely commented upon by the learned Dr. Benjamin Franklin, F. R. S. His ingenious hypothefis, that whirlwinds and water-fpouts have a common origin, has not been invalidated by our obfervations. We refer our philofophical readers to his papers, as containing the most complete and fatisfactory account of waterspouts.

Singular Cafe of a Boy ftruck with Horror at an Execution in France,

JAM

AMES DEREAU, apprentice to an engraver, aged fourteen years, born at Fontainebleau, lived in the ftreet d'Enfer in Paris, near the Pont Rouge, with his mafter the

cattle into the fields too early in the fpring, their drinking water mixed with ice, or but lately thawed, their being kept in ftables that are too clofe and filthy, and are not sufficiently aired. The mildew, producing the disease, is that which dries and burns the grafs and leaves. It falls ufually in the morning, particularly after a thunder-ftorm. Its poifonous quality, (which does not continue above twenty-four hours) never operates, but when it has been fwallowed immediately after its falling. The diforder, it occafions, attacks the ftomach, is accompanied with pimples on the tongue, with lofs of appetite, with the deficcation of the aliments in the ftomach, with a cough and a difficulty of refpiration. As a prefervative, the author prefcribes purging in fpring and in winter. The medicine he advifes is compofed of thirty grains of fulphur of antimony and fixty grains of refin of jalap. He is against vomiting, and every thing that is of a heating

any

fo much time, that the liver and roe only were served up that evening, and the remainder preserved for the next day. As the liver was large and oily, though without particular bad tafte, the captain and the two Mr. Forfters only tasted it. About three o'clock in the morning, Mr. Forfter awaking found himfelf extremely giddy, and his hands and feet entirely, as it were, benumbed. He got up, and was fcarcely able to stand; and Captain Cook and the younger Mr. Forfter, upon being awakened, found themselves in the fame fituation. The fymptoms were fomewhat alarming. Their limbs were

benumbed, and without fenfation, fo that they could not diftinguish between light and heavy bodies; the blood had left their cheeks, their lips became livid, and a great degree of languor and oppreffion had taken place. Emetics were adminiftered to them by the fur. geon, Mr. Patton, and afterwards fudorifics. These medicines gave them great relief, and in a few days they were all reftored to health without any bad confequences remaining. Some dogs which had feized upon the remains of the liver were taken extremely ill, and a pig which had eaten the entrails of the fish died foon after, being fwelled to an unusual fize. The day after the fish was purchased, some of the natives came on board. At fight of the fish, which was hung under the half-deck, they made figns that it occafioned pains in the ftomach, drowsiness and death; and when it was offered them they refused it with the strongest marks of averfion.-The fish was preferved by Mr. Forster in fpirits of wine, and brought over to England.