reservation of the health of
the crews, that furnished a constant occupation to a great number of our
hands. The standing orders, established by Captain Cook, of airing the
bedding, placing fires between deck, washing them with vinegar, and smoking
them with gunpowder, were observed without any intermission. For some time
past, even the operation of mending the sailors' old jackets had risen into
a duty both of difficulty and importance. It may be necessary to inform
those who are unacquainted with the disposition and habits of seamen, that
they are so accustomed in ships of war to be directed in the care of
themselves by their officers, that they lose the very idea of foresight,
and contract the thoughtlessness of infants. I am sure, that if our people
had been left to their own discretion alone, we should have had the whole
crew naked, before the voyage had been half finished. It was natural to
expect, that their experience, during our voyage to the north last year,
would have made them sensible of the necessity of paying some attention to
these matters; but if such reflections ever occurred to them, their
impression was so transitory, that upon our return to the tropical
climates, their fur-jackets, and the rest of their cold country clothes,
were kicked about the decks as things of no value; though it was generally
known in both ships, that we were to make another voyage toward the Pole.
They were of course picked up by the officers; and being put into casks,
restored about this time to the owners.

In the afternoon we observed some of the sheathing floating by the ship;
and on examination found that twelve or fourteen feet had been washed off
from under the larboard bow, where we supposed the leak to have been, which
ever since our leaving Sandwich Islands, had kept the people almost
constantly at the pumps, making twelve inches water an hour. This day we
saw a number of small crabs, of a pale blue colour; and had again, in
company, a few albatrosses and sheerwaters. The thermometer in the night-
time sunk eleven degrees; and although it remained as high as 59 deg., yet we
suffered much from the cold, our feelings being as yet by no means
reconciled to that degree of temperature.

The wind continued blowing fresh from the N. till the 8th in the morning,
when it became more moderate, with fair weather, and gradually changed its
direction to the E., and afterward to the S.

On the 9th, at noon, our latitude was 32 d