Horn, which is worse, far worse, than being becalmed on the
Line.

Here we lay forty-eight hours, during which the cold was intense. I
wondered at the liquid sea, which refused to freeze in such a
temperature. The clear, cold sky overhead looked like a steel-blue
cymbal, that might ring, could you smite it. Our breath came and went
like puffs' of smoke from pipe-bowls. At first there was a long gauky
swell, that obliged us to furl most of the sails, and even send down
t'-gallant-yards, for fear of pitching them overboard.

Out of sight of land, at this extremity of both the inhabitable and
uninhabitable world, our peopled frigate, echoing with the voices of
men, the bleating of lambs, the cackling of fowls, the gruntings of
pigs, seemed like Noah's old ark itself, becalmed at the climax of the
Deluge.

There was nothing to be done but patiently to await the pleasure of the
elements, and "whistle for a wind," the usual practice of seamen in a
calm. No fire was allowed, except for the indispensable purpose of
cooking, and heating bottles of water to toast Selvagee's feet. He who
possessed the largest stock of vitality, stood the best chance to
escape freezing. It was horrifying. In such weather any man could have
undergone amputation with great ease, and helped take up the arteries
himself.

Indeed, this state of affairs had not lasted quite twenty-four hours,
when the extreme frigidity of the air, united to our increased tendency
to inactivity, would very soon have rendered some of us subjects for
the surgeon and his mates, had not a humane proceeding of the Captain
suddenly impelled us to vigorous exercise.

And here be it said, that the appearance of the Boat-swain, with his
silver whistle to his mouth, at the main hatchway of the gun-deck, is
always regarded by the crew with the utmost curiosity, for this
betokens that some general order is about to be promulgated through the
ship. What now? is the question that runs on from man to man. A short
preliminary whistle is then given by "Old Yarn," as they call him,
which whistle serves to collect round him, from their various stations,
his four mates. Then Yarn, or Pipes, as leader of the orchestra, begins
a peculiar call, in which his assistants join. This over, the order,
whatever it may be, is loudly sung out and prolonged, till the remotest
corner echoes again. The Boatswain and his mates are the town-criers of
a man-of-war.

The calm had commenced in the afte