Passed a comfortable night till five, when the vessel began to roll
about. Got up before seven, found a dead calm which was the cause of the
motion, which continued all forenoon.
Amused myself with reading Mr. Bassnett's voyage to Syria; and also at
looking at some amusing caricatures of Cruickshank's. The wind fair but
very little of it, yesterday a gale but in a wrong direction; in fact we
have only had once a really fair wind and that for a short time. A great
many gulls to be seen, most of them with pointed tails, and few petrels.
Had we gone over the banks we might have had some diversion in fishing,
but the Captain was afraid of encountering the ice.
In the Gulf there is not only a stream against us but generally very
foggy weather and changeable, either calms or storms. This has been a
very unpleasant day, a calm with dull hazy weather, no fish or ships, or
even Mother Carey's chickens, but only a few gulls. A good deal of
champagne taken to-day by Jackson, very foolish.