ars supernatural, and will scarcely find credit in this part of
the world; for who will believe that fish should fall from the sky in
a shower of rain? A gentleman of veracity, who spent many years in the
East Indies, declares to his friends that he has been witness to this
several times; but speaks of it with caution, knowing that it will be
thought incredible by those who are not acquainted with the cause. I
have a servant, a native of the West Indies, who assures me he was
once a witness to this fact himself, when small fish, about two or
three inches long, fell in great numbers during a storm of rain. The
spot where this happened was in the island of Jamaica, within about a
mile of the sea. When water is carried with violence from the sea up
the column of a spout, small fish, which are too weak to escape when
the column is forming, are conveyed up to the clouds, and fall from
them afterwards on land, not far distant from the sea." He had before
related an instance of one that passed over the town of Hatfield, in
Yorkshire, filling the air with the thatch it plucked off from the
houses, and rolling strangely together several sheets of lead on the
corner of the church.--E.

SECTION VII.

_Captain Furneaux's Narrative, from the Time the two Ships were
separated, to their joining again in Queen Charlotte's Sound, with some
Account of Van Diemen's Land._

On the 7th of February, 1773, in the morning, the Resolution being then
about two miles a-head, the wind shifting then to the westward, brought on
a very thick fog; so that we lost sight of her. We soon after heard a gun,
the report of which we imagined to be on the larboard beam; we then hauled
up S.E., and kept firing a four-pounder every half hour, but had no answer,
nor further sight of her; then we kept the course we steered on before the
fog came on. In the evening it began to blow hard, and was at intervals
more clear, but could see nothing of her, which gave us much uneasiness. We
then tacked and stood to the westward, to cruise in the place where we last
saw her, according to agreement, in case of separation; but next day came
on a very heavy gale of wind and thick weather, that obliged us to bring
to, and thereby prevented us reaching the intended spot. However, the wind
coming more moderate, and the fog in some measure clearing away, we cruised
as near the place as we could get, for