These Winds Are Accompanied By Much Thunder And Lightning,
And Excessive Rains, Of So Noisome A Nature, As Immediately To Cause
People's Clothes To Stink On Their Backs; And Wherever This Rain-Water
Stagnates, Even For A Short Space Of Time, It Brings Forth Many
Offensive Animalcules.
The tornadoes began with us when in about 12 deg.
Of
N. latitude, and continued till we were two degrees to the south of the
equinoctial line, which we passed on the 28th of April. The 19th of May,
being Whitsunday, we passed the tropic of Capricorn, so that we were
complete seven weeks under the torrid zone.
Almost every day, while between the tropics, we saw various kinds of
fish, in greater abundance than elsewhere. As the whale, or mighty
Leviathan, whom God hath created to take his pastime in the seas;
Dolphins also, and Albicores, with Bonitoes, flying-fishes, and many
others. Some whales were of an exceeding greatness, which, in calm
weather, would often rise and shew themselves above the water, appearing
like vast rocks; and, while rising, they would spout up a great quantity
of water into the air, with much noise, which fell down again around
them like heavy rain. The dolphin is called, from the swiftness of its
motion, the arrow of the sea. This fish differs from many others, in
having teeth on the top of its tongue. It is pleasing to the eye, the
smell, and the taste, having a changeable colour, finned like a roach,
covered with very small scales, giving out a delightful scent above all
other fishes, and is in taste as good as any.
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