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page 25

This great transparency, and the beautiful azure of the sky, were observed by us with pleasure in some sun-shiny days during our stay, as infallible indications of more favorable weather, and of the approach of spring; some of the harbingers of which, belonging to the vegetable kingdom, were already in full bloom; such as Anemone hortensis, Parietaria judaica, Plantago subulata and Coronopus, Ornithogalum umbellatum, Muscari comosum and Muscari racemosum, Ixia Bulbocodium, Ranunculus muricatus and Ranunculus parviflorus, and some others. The season being so cold, hardly any animals were to be found except a Testacella Europaea, the Scorpio Italicus, and the more common marine animals, such as Aplysia depilans, Holothuria elegans, some fish and medusae.

The meteorological phenomena here were not very different from those observed at Triest. The barometer was at 27°11'; Reaumur's thermometer in the air was, in the morning, never above 8°; at noon, 10°-11°; in the evening, 6°-7°; in the water, in the morning, 8°-9°; at noon, 9°-10°; in the evening, 8°-8°5'. The specific gravity of the sea water was 1.0372. The whalebone hygrometer stood between 39° and 48°.

The naval officer, who had been sent from Pola to Venice, to bring a new bowsprit from the arsenal, and make inquiry respecting the fate of our consort, the frigate Augusta, after losing all her masts, sails, and boats, had sought shelter on the island of Chioggia, and would in all probability be obliged to go from that place to Venice, in order to repair in the arsenal of that city the great damage she had sustained, which was estimated at twenty thousand francs.

page26

The bowsprit was soon put up, and on the seventh day the Austria was again ready to sail. The embassy, therefore, resolved to proceed to Gibraltar alone, and there to wait both the Augusta frigate and the Portuguese squadron, as well as further instructions from the imperial court of Vienna.

On the 21st of April, at six o'clock in the morning, we weighed anchor, and left the harbor of Pola with a faint east-northeast wind. By the time it was broad daylight we were in the open sea. The horizon was covered with thin white clouds, but the sky in the zenith was of the purest azure, and we indulged in the most pleasing hopes as a faint but favorable wind conveyed us to the entrance of the Golfo di Quarnero. About ten o'clock in the morning we had the southeast point of Istria before us, about ten leagues distant. We took a last look at the Monte Maggiore, the highest mountain in the peninsula, the summit of which was covered with snow on the day of the storm, and was not yet free of it. When we had doubled this southermost promontory, the high mountains behind Fiume rose in the distant background to the north, and before us Monte d'Osero, a steep barren limestone chain, which runs lengthwise through the greater part of the island of the same name, and is a great advantage to navigation, as a mark in these seas, where there are so many rocks and shoals.