We made but slow progress during the night, and felt delay the more
tedious from the eager anxiety with which we desired sight of the land
where our duties were to begin in earnest. We were not successful with
our soundings till 6 P.M., when we had the same kind of bottom as before
described, with 117 fathoms: 15 miles East by North 1/2 North from our
noon position, which was 220 miles West by South from Roebuck Bay: 30
miles in the same direction from our noon position, we shoaled our water
to 85 fathoms, the ground retaining the same distinctive character. We
had the wind from South-West to South-East during the afternoon, but at 6
P.M. it chopped round to North-North-West, when, too, for the first time,
we perceived lightning to the South-East--Barometer 29.92; thermometer
85.

January 13.

The preceding indications of the coming squall, which had given us full
time for preparation, were realized about one o'clock this morning, when
it reached us, though only moderately, from South-East. It was preceded
by the rise and rapid advance of a black cloud in that quarter, just as
Captain King has described.

ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE.

At noon we were in latitude 18 degrees 26 minutes South, longitude 119
degrees 18 minutes East, and in soundings of 75 fathoms, fine white sand,
broken shells, and fragments of dead coral. There was only a slight
variation in the atmospheric temperature of two degrees during the
twenty-four hours, the highest in the day being 85, and the lowest at
night 83. The water was very smooth, but as night approached it thundered
and lightened heavily and vividly, and most of us noticed and suffered