This day we took up a cask which upon tapping proved full of excellent brandy; it was covered with barnacles, and had probably been floating four or five months. 15th. A Hawk of a small kind, resembling the Sparrow Hawk of England, was this morning caught in the rigging; the nearest land being supposed above three hundred miles renders this an {8} extraordinary circumstance: we also saw yesterday a large brown bird pursuing a Gull, and understood its name to be Rump-poke. An appropriate appellation, as it pursues other birds for their droppings, which it catches as they fall and feeds upon. 18th. We have experienced so many head winds and calms that the spirits of all, not excepting the Captain, are cast down,--two thousand five hundred miles yet to run. Yesterday a lady a cabin passenger, was safely delivered of a boy her first child. 22d. Favorable breezes. A quarrel between the cook and a sailor, in which the former knocked out three of the latter's teeth with a billet of wood; and for which he underwent a severe _cobbing_.[3] 24th. Two Whales of the Grampus kind rose near the vessel. At 7 A. M. a large fish was seen to pass the ship tormented by a shoal of small ones; the Captain ordered the boat down, went out, struck it, and it was got on board; it proved to be a Sun-fish that weighed one hundred weight and a half: it was quickly cut to pieces, dressed, {9} and eaten by the ship's company and some of the passengers; the flesh very white and firm. SHIP COOKERY Anything but clean,--anything but simple,--anything but what one is used to. SITUATION OF A PASSENGER ON BOARD SHIP Some risk,--little comfort,--a total inversion of all accustomed habits,--a feeling of insecurity,--irritability,--a longing to be ashore; in short, a total _be-blue-devilment_ at times, with a few hours of pleasanter colour just to keep hope alive. The ignorance and simplicity of some of the passengers are greater than might be supposed; one said the other day he supposed we had five hundred miles yet to go, and another asked me if America was mountainous. 26th. A tremendous wave broke over us, giving the ship such a shock as laid her down on her side. Great was the confusion; trunks thrown upon trunks, tables, chairs, all forced from their {10} mooring, in spite of bolts and ropes; we were glad to find however that, excepting the fracture of glasses and crockery, no material accident had happened to any one. About this time an account of each steerage passenger's stock of provisions was taken, and though but three weeks out, several were found nearly exhausted; so improvident had they been. * * * * * The following list of sea stores is recommended as sufficient for a steerage passenger.