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[Page 2]
on board the Neptune was trifling, & swept away almost as fast as it fell, the Captain not at the time regarding it as curious - he had new [turned?] his rigging but a few days before, & was astonished to observe it covered with this light dust, for whose appearance he was wholly unable to account before his arrival a few days after at Barbadoes, when he regretted not having preserved any of the substance which fell - This dust for days came in the direction of the trade wind from the N.E. & only affected the after part of his ship & rigging: the weather was moderate but hazy, so that he was unable to satisfy my curiosity with respect to the appearance of any counter current in the superior strata of air, upon which principle alone I can account for the ashes coming from St.Vincent - He promised me an extract of the days remarks, (with his Latitude & Longitude at the time) from his log, but as he returned to St. Kitts, where his ship was at anchor, & was to proceed next day to Santa Cruz I fear he has forgotten his promise - by reference however to a good map a tolerably correct estimate of the ships place may be formed. I should judge it to be somewhere about Lat.17º.0'.0" N. & Long. 54º.0'.0" W. It is rather unfortunate that there were no small clouds visible in the upper regions of the air to point out the direction of the current - I have myself observed a superior current going with considerable rapidity N.E. at the moment when the ship I was on board of, made from 7 to 8 Knots an hour with a trade wind blowing from the NE.