On the sixteenth day the weather cleared up a little and the sun came
out, and an observation was got, which showed that the ship had been
carried into the vicinity before described. For once the sturdy old
whale-killer had got drifted away from his course. But he declared it
was all owing to the sea getting tipsy, the compasses getting tipsy, the
chronometers getting tipsy, and the sun keeping himself rolled up in a
blanket. You could'nt, he said, get a ship to look the wind in the eye
when all the elements were tipsy. He was a lucky mariner who could get
round Cape Horn without being tossed off his feet for a
month--everything seemed to stagger so.
The wind now changed suddenly and blew as fiercely from the opposite
direction, and the cold increased. The ship was at once got on her
course for the straits, her reefs were shook out, and she bowled over
the sea at the rate of nine knots. Still the sky continued black and
cloudy, and the horizon misty and dim. The sea ran high, and broke and
surged, filling the air with a cold, cutting spray, while the ship
labored and strained in every timber.
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