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Cook's voyages of discovery, ed. by J. Barrow
Cook's voyages of discovery ed by J Barrow Author:James Cook Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: birds, especially small ones, many of them covered with the most elegant plumage, among which were the humming-bird. Of insects, too, there was a great variety, ... more »and some of them very beautiful. The riches of the place consist chiefly in the gold mines, which we supposed to lie far up the country, though we could never learn where, or at what distance. The jewels found are diamonds, topazes of several kinds, and amethysts. Though the climate is hot, the situation is certainly wholesome ; while we stayed here the thermometer never rose higher than 83 degrees. We had frequent rains, and once a very hard gale of wind. So that, upon the whole, Rio de Janeiro is a very good place for ships to put in at that want refreshment. We did not get under sail till the 7th of December, when we stood out to sea. Eio Janeiro To Terra Del Fuego. Nothing remarkable happened till the llth of January, wheu. having passed Falkland's islands, we discovered the coast of Terra del Fuego. Having continued to range the coast, on the 14th we entered the Strait of Le Maire ; but the tide turning against us drove us out with great violence, and raised such a sea that the waves had exactly the same appearance as they would have had if they had broke over a ledge of rocks ; and when the ship was in this torrent she frequently pitched so that the bowsprit was under water. It will probably be thought strange that where weeds, which grow at the bottom of the sea, appear above the surface, there should be a great depth of water; but the weeds which grow upon rocky ground in these countries, and which always distinguish it from sand and oose, are of an enormous size. Theleaves are four feet long, and some of the stalks, though not thicker than a man's thumb, above one hundred and twenty Banks and Sol...« less