with the whole business.

The old Courier's yards were braced around and we were off for Cape
Horn, 56 deg. south latitude. One day, it being quite calm, the lookouts at
the mast-head noticed a lot of sea-gulls flying around in a circle, and
under them something floating in the water. We thought it might be a
dead whale, so the mate's boat was lowered. We found it to be an old
cask, which must have been in the water for years, as it was thickly
covered with barnacles.

We towed the cask to the ship and hoisted it on board. As it came out of
the sea we noticed that the staves were completely honeycombed by the
sea-worms. The water was spurting out as if it were a sprinkling-pot. We
had just got it over the ship's rail when it burst, and the contents
fell on the deck. It proved to be palm-oil, probably from some vessel in
the African trade that had been wrecked. It had, no doubt, drifted many
thousands of miles. We saved two barrels of oil out of our catch.

The weather soon began to get much cooler, and storms were frequent;
then we began to see the albatross and Cape Horn pigeons. The latter is
about the size of a domestic pigeon, but has webbed feet and a hooked
bill, and is the only wild bird having variegated plumage, no two being
marked alike. We caught quite a number of the albatross, some measuring
seventeen feet from tip to tip of wing. We caught them with large
fishhooks baited with a big piece of salt pork. The bait would float on
the surface of the water. We had them walking all over the decks, as
they cannot fly unless they run on water to give them a good start. The
large webbed feet make excellent money pouches when dried and properly
dressed.

In the month of January, midsummer in the southern hemisphere, we
sighted Staten Land, the extreme southern point of South America, and
ordinarily designated as Cape Horn. For the first time we then saw the
Pacific Ocean, "so near and yet so far," for just at this time we were
struck by a heavy northwest gale. A close-reefed main top-sail and storm
stay-sail was all we could carry with the ship headed as close to the
wind as possible, so as to ride over the mountain-like waves. The helm
was lashed hard down, as there was no steerage way.

There we were, drifting to the south for about three weeks before the
gale broke, and we were able to make sail on the ship. It was daylight
for twenty-two hours, and the other two hours of the twenty-four could
not be called d