and stood to the northward for twenty-
six miles. Still nothing in sight; so we hove about again, and this
time reached to the southward and eastward for a distance of twenty-six
miles, continuing our search thus throughout the entire day, without
success. At sunset we hove about again, and, reaching to the northward,
until we had arrived at the track which the boats, if still afloat,
would probably pass over, we hove-to for the night, hoisting three
lanterns, as before, to attract their attention should they happen to
arrive within sight of us during the hours of darkness. It was some
relief to us that the night was tolerably clear, with a fair sprinkling
of stars and a moon well advanced in her first quarter; so that, during
the first half of the night, we had a very fair amount of light.

I did not keep the lookout men aloft at night, deeming it useless, as
the light, although--as I have said--fairly good, was not bright enough
to reveal a small object like a boat at a greater distance than some two
or three miles, and up to that distance it was possible to see really
better from the level of the deck than from the more lofty elevation of
the yards; but I had three men continuously on the lookout at the same
time, namely, one on the jib-boom end, and one each to port and
starboard in the waist. We were hove-to on the starboard tack.
Needless to say, that although we had these three men thus stationed for
the express purpose of keeping a lookout and doing nothing else, Lindsay
and I also kept our eyes well skinned, going even to the length of
blinding the skylight with an old sail in order that our eyes might not
be dazzled by even the dim light of the cabin lamp.

It happened to be my eight hours in that night, and I had taken
advantage of the circumstance to turn in early, for the anxiety
attending upon this dishearteningly fruitless search was beginning to
tell upon me, and I had suffered for the last night or two from an
inability to sleep. On this particular occasion, however, I felt
somewhat drowsy, and therefore went to my bunk in the hope of getting
two or three hours' rest; and, as a matter of fact, I did sleep, but my
rest was so disturbed by frightful dreams of men enduring unheard-of
suffering in open boats, that at length, awaking in a paroxysm of
horror, I turned out and went on deck, to find that it was seven bells,
and that under any circumstances I should have been called in another
half-hour.