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Travels in Some Parts of North America, in the Years 1804, 1805, & 1806, by Robert Sutcliff

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hands and faces, and were obliged to use the sea water which is far from being pleasant. Besides, having had a considerable loss by the breakage of ale and porter bottles, owing to their having been put up when the liquor was new, the passengers and officers of the ship were obliged to submit to a certain allowance of these articles; and we now began to be more frugal of our fresh provisions than heretofore. While our time was thus passing on in the gulf stream, we were under some apprehensions of be- ing carried out of our course by the current; and the sea being often as smooth as a fish-pond, we occasionally hoisted out the boat, and taking an iron pot, let it down into the sea, by which means the direction of the current was ascertained. Some of us were at the trouble of sealing up a bottle, inclosing a paper containing the latitude and longitude; and, adding our names and places of abode, We requested that the person who might pick it up would inform any of the parties. Although we had no great expectation of hearing more of the bottle after it was thrown into the sea, yet I had not been long in America before the paper was handed to me, having been picked up on the sands near Newport, in Rhode Island. Thus, contrary to the received opinion respecting the current of the gulf stream, it had been carried in a north-westerly direction. There seemed no