l to Roswell soon caused the schooner to be close on a wind;
down went her helm, and round she came like a top. Sail was shortened in
stays, and by the time the little craft was ready to fall off for the
passage, she had nothing on her but a foretopsail, jib, and a close-reefed
mainsail. Under this canvass she glided along, almost brushing the rocks
of the islet, but without touching. In twenty minutes more she was clear
of the group altogether, and in open water!

That night some embarrassment was encountered from broken field-ice, of
which the ocean was pretty full; but by exercising great vigilance, no
serious thump occurred. Fortunately the period of darkness was quite
short, the twilight being of great length both mornings and evenings; and
the re-appearance of the sun cast a cheerful glow on the face of the
troubled waters.

The wind held at south-west for three days, blowing heavily the whole
time. By the second night-fall the sea was clear of ice, and everything
was carried on the schooner that she could bear. About nine o'clock on the
morning of the fourth day out, a speck was seen rising above the ragged
outline of the rolling waves; and each minute it became higher and more
distinct. An hour or two later, the Sea Lion was staggering along before a
westerly gale, with the Hermit of Cape Horn on her larboard beam distant
three leagues. How many trying scenes and bitter moments crowded on the
mind of young Roswell Gardiner, as he recalled all that had passed in the
ten months which intervened since he had come out from behind the shelter
of those wild rocks! Stormy as was that sea, and terrible as was its name
among mariners, coming, as he did, from one still more stormy and
terrible, he now regarded it as a sort of place of refuge. A winter
there, he well knew, would be no trifling undertaking, but he had just
passed a winter in a region where even fuel was not to be found, unless
carried there. Twenty days later the Sea Lion sailed again from Rio,
having sold all the sea-elephant oil that remained, and bought stores; of
which, by this time, the vessel was much in want. Most of the portions of
the provisions that were left had been damaged by the thawing process; and
food was getting to be absolutely necessary to her people, when the
schooner went again into the noble harbour of the capital of Brazil. Then
succeeded the lassitude and calms that reign about the imaginary line that
marks the circuit of the earth,