he night. At noon we were in lat. 26 deg. 44' S.,
long. 103 deg. 50' E. I managed to go to the deck-house to-day for lunch,
and remained on deck a little afterwards. Just before sunset we saw
several sea-birds, and a splendid albatross with a magnificent spread
of wing. It was wonderful to watch its quick turns and graceful
skimming flight, so swift, and yet with hardly any perceptible
movement.

_Tuesday, May 3rd._--A fine day, very smooth, almost calm. Carried
away the strop of the mizen-topsail-sheet block and rove new sheets.
At noon we had sailed 140 miles, and were in lat. 28 deg. 54' S., long.
103 deg. 12' E.

At 2.30 a large fish was observed close to the vessel. He was from
twenty to thirty feet long, and must have been either a white whale
or a shark swimming on his back, and so snowy white as to make the
sea, which was of a beautiful clear ultramarine blue, look pale green
above him, like water over a coral reef. The creature did not rise
above the surface, so we had not a good view of him, and he gave no
sign of a disposition to 'blow,' though we watched him for more than
half an hour. This makes me think that he must have been a shark, and
not a whale, as the others assumed.

At 4 P.M. the fires were lighted in order to enable us to get within
the influence of the true west wind, for we had reached the edge of
the trades. About 6 P.M. we commenced steaming.

_Wednesday, May 4th._--A fine day, with a moderate sea and a little
imaginary breeze. At noon we had come eighty-six miles under steam and
forty under sail, and were in lat. 30 deg. 24' S., long. 124 deg. 26' E.
[Transcriber's Note: Long. 124 deg. E. would put the Sunbeam in the middle
of Australia. More likely the author meant 104 deg..] The temperature at
noon in the shade was 65 deg., which we found very cold.

At 4 P.M. we saw a steamer hull down. In about an hour we had
approached each other sufficiently close to enable us to ascertain
that she was the 'Liguria,' one of the Orient Line, bound for
Adelaide. We exchanged a little conversation with signal flags, and,
having mutually wished each other a pleasant voyage, parted company.
This was the first ship seen since leaving Macassar. The evening
bitterly cold.

We have just seen a splendid lunar rainbow, and I suspect it forebodes
a good deal more wind than we have lately had. It was perfect in
shape, and the brilliant prismatic colours were most distinctly
marked. I never saw such a rainbo