Impressions and observations at sea.  Remarks on voyage from Bahia to the Cape.

August 25.

Re-embarked in the Beagle and sailed for the Cape of Good Hope.

September 10.

We had yesterday and all last night a gale of wind, succeeded this day by a heavy fall of rain.  The wind had raised a very high sea, but when the rain began to fall I heard the captain and several of the officers remark that the rain would lay the sea; for the result of their experience was, “that a fall of rain always beats the sea down.”  What they had stated would occur took place in this instance within two or three hours.  This shows forcibly what great results a slight force, continued for a long time, will produce.

September 15.

Whilst standing on the deck of the Beagle this evening we remarked large luminous spots in the water.  They appeared to be about 12 inches in circumference, were very numerous, and perfectly stationary.  The light they emitted was phosphorescent, but far brighter than I had ever before witnessed; it was so vivid as to be distinctly visible for nearly a quarter of a mile.

September 16.

We saw this morning an immense number of fin-backed whales, some of which were quite close to the vessel.  In the course of half an hour I counted thirty of them.  Could they have been feeding on the phosphorescent animals we saw last night?

We are today about 600 miles from the Cape, and there is a strange discordance amongst the elements.  From the south-west comes a long and heavy swell; a strong breeze is blowing from the east, and threatening clouds spring upwards from the north.  These omens have a meaning.  Down to the southward, somewhere off Cape Horn, there blows a furious gale.  The wind will draw round shortly to the northward.  That is the interpretation and the reading.

A swell like this one can only witness off the Cape of Good Hope.  It was to me a novel and magnificent sight.  Uniform and lofty ridges of waves advancing in rapid succession, and yet with so regular and undisturbed a motion that one might easily fancy these great walls of water to be stationary:  yet onward they moved in uniform and martial order; whilst as the ship rose upon their crests she seemed to hover for a moment over the ocean in mid air.  And now the wind drew round to the northward and it blew almost a gale.  The vessel felt its power and bent before it.  It was beautiful to watch the process of hand-reefing topsails and making the vessel snug—­the ready obedience to the word of command and the noiseless discipline with which each duty was fulfilled.  First had the men clustered on the rigging like bees; then at the word to lay out they fearlessly extended themselves along the yard-arm, and whilst they took in the reefs the ship pitched and rolled so heavily that one felt anxious for their safety:  but there they swung securely between high heaven and the sea.