ees there is abundance, of which, however, none
can be preserved at sea but the pumpkin; rum, sugar, and molasses, all
excellent in their kind, may be had at a reasonable price; tobacco also
is cheap, but it is not good. Here is a yard for building shipping, and
a small hulk to heave down by; for, as the tide never rises above six or
seven feet, there is no other way of coming at a ship's bottom.

When the boat which had been sent on shore returned, we hoisted her on
board, and stood out to sea.

SECTION III.

_The Passage from Rio de Janeiro to the entrance of the Streight of Le
Maire, with a Description of some of the Inhabitants of Terra del
Fuego._

On the 9th of December, we observed the sea to be covered with broad
streaks of a yellowish colour, several of them a mile long, and three or
four hundred yards wide: Some of the water thus coloured was taken up,
and found to be full of innumerable atoms pointed at the end, of a
yellowish colour, and none more than a quarter of a line, or the
fortieth part of an inch long: In the microscope they appeared to be
_fasciculi_ of small fibres interwoven with each other, not unlike the
nidus of some of the _phyganeas_, called caddices; but whether they were
animal or vegetable substances, whence they came, or for what they were
designed, neither Mr Banks nor Dr Solander could guess. The same
appearance had been observed before, when we first discovered the
continent of South America.[79]

[Footnote 79: The Portuguese have a name for what is here spoken of.
They call it the grassy sea. There is reason to think that it is a
vegetable, and not an animal production. But, on the whole, the subject
has been little investigated.--E.]

On the 11th we hooked a shark, and while we were playing it under the
cabin window, it threw out, and drew in again several times what
appeared to be its stomach: It proved to be a female, and upon being
opened six young ones were taken out of it; five of them were alive, and
swam briskly in a tub of water, but the sixth appeared to have been dead
some time.

Nothing remarkable happened till the 30th, except that we prepared for
the bad weather, which we were shortly to expect, by bending a new suit
of sails; but on this day we ran a course of one hundred and sixty miles
by the log, through innumerable land insects of various kinds, some
upon the wing, and more upon the water, many of which were alive; they
appeared to be exactly the same w