number of worms, that ought to be claſſed among the genus faſciola of Linnæus, though their inferior extremity, which is almoſt cylindrical, has a very diſtinguiſhable bulb. They are about four lines in length, and terminate in a tube which compoſes about half their dimenſions.
The winds from the ſouth and ſouth-eaſt continued to blow with ſuch obſtinacy, that we were not able to croſs the Line till in the night of the 28th, about eleven o'clock, in 26° E. long. though our deſign had been to croſs it about eight or ten degrees farther eaſtward.
Theſe ſouth and ſouth-eaſt winds are not common in theſe latitudes at this time of the year; for the ſun being already conſiderably advanced in the Tropic of Capricorn, the regular winds generally veer round to the eaſt. The calms, in conſequence of which we had got every day 6 or 8′ further northward, and the gales from the ſouth and ſouth-eaſt, were the cauſes of our being ſo long detained by theſe winds.
Near as we were to the Equator, the thermometer, as obſerved for the laſt eight days, had not ſtood higher than 21 or 22°. It was a matter of ſurpriſe to us, that being ſo near the Line, the thermometer did not indicate a higher degree of heat; but beſides general cauſes, ſuch as the abſorption of the rays of the ſun by the water of
the
