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KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTH. VEY,
not have arifen from the log-line, the knots of which were made at a diftance of forty-
feven feet fixinches : this diftance is correét, the fea-league being reduced by the gentle-
men of the academy of fciences to 2850 toifes, from their finding in 1672 that a degree
in the celeftial fphere was equal to 57000 toifes onthe earth. If the third part of 2850
be taken, it will give 950 toifes of the Chatelet at Paris, or 5700 royal feet, which di-
vided by twelve, yields forty-feven feet and a half, the diftance or interval of each knot
onthe log-line. The difference could not proceed from the half-minute glaffes either,
which I proved the correétnefs of by comparing them with each other, and by a watch
I had which pointed the feconds. Thefe fmall glaffes, the purpofe of which ts to mea-
fure the diftance paffed over on the log-line during their run, which is half a minute,
cannot be proved too frequently, for the change of weather from dry to humid alone
may occafion a confiderable variation ; and one fingle fecond error in half a minute will
caufe a difference of thirty leagues in a run of athoufand. It would be ufelefs to enter
into minutiz on this matter fo often noticed, and particularly by M. Dechabert, at pre-
fent captain of a frigate, who in his Journal of a Voyage to North America difplays all
the caufes of errors in navigation. It is fufficient to obferve that the 12’ difference of
the latitude did not arife either from the log-line or the half-minute glaffes, but from the
currents, which I reckon to run N.E. in this quarter, owing to the bay of Galway,
the bearing of the coaft, which is N. and S., and the S. W. winds, which almoft conti-
nually blow in this latitude, all which fhould neceflarily determine the currents running
to the N.E.
I found next day again a difference N. between the height by obfervation and that b
reckoning, and perceived tide-banks and fea-weed, the direction of which were N. E.
and S. W., which confirmed me in my opinion. I noticed the fame day 22° 50’ varia-
tion at fun-fet ; a fhort time previous to which we had a moft pleafing fight. ‘The rays
of the fun broken and reflected by dark clouds on the horizon, reprefented at a diftance,
apparently of two leagues, a rapid river, which feemed to precipitate itfelf in cafcades of
different colours, azure, filver, and gold.
The third, fourth, and fifth, nothing particular occurred ; the winds were variable,
and I made moft advantageous tacks: until the third, the wind had been S. E.
On the fixth, after keeping all day a N.N.E. courfe, the wind blowing hard and
frefh, with a rough fea, the main and fore-top-fails reefed ; as foonas the evening came
on I ftood under bare poles, not wifhing to make way till day-light, thinking mylelf five
leagues to the S.S. EF. of a fand-bank, as defcribed in the Dutch charts. The feventh,
at noon, I found myfelf by obfervation in lat. 56’ 41’, and long. 16° 15’ W. of Paris.
The eighth, at night, a violent gale of wind came on from the eaft, with a dreadful
fea; it fnowed and hailed, and was colder than what we find it at Paris in the fharpeft
winters. I then recollected the application made by M. de Frezier in the fame circum-
itances, when doubling Cape Horn, of the thought of Horace:
Meliufne flu@tus
Ire per longos fuit, an recentes
Carpere flores ?
Or gives them more delight
A dangerous voyage o’er the diftant main,
Or gath’ring flowers from the tranquil plain ?
In truth, there is fome difference between: the fmiling days of May, fuch as we expe-
rience in France, and the rigorous weather we had to undergo; and when I compared
the comfort of a life on fhore with a tolerable competency, to the tirefomenefs of the
VOL. 1. 5 3B fea,
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