ich to direct his course, nor a sextant by which
he might make an observation.

Desperate, however, as our condition might be judged, hope did not
entirely abandon our hearts, and day after day, hour after hour were
our eyes strained towards the horizon, and many and many a time did our
imagination shape out the distant land. But ever and again the illusion
vanished; a cloud, a mist, perhaps even a wave, was all that had
deceived us; no land, no sail ever broke the grey line that united sea
and sky, and our raft remained the centre of the wide and dreary waste.

On the 1st of January we swallowed our last morsel of biscuit. The
1st of January! New Year's Day! What a rush of sorrowful recollections
overwhelmed our minds! Had we not always associated the opening of
another year with new hopes, new plans, and coming joys? And now, where
were we? Could we dare to look at one another, and breathe a new year's
greeting?

The boatswain approached me with a peculiar look on his countenance.

"You are surely not going to wish me a happy new year?" I said.

"No indeed, sir," he replied, "I was only going to wish you well through
the first day of it; and that is pretty good assurance on my part, for
we have not another crumb to eat."

True as it was, we scarcely realized the fact of there being actually
nothing until on the following morning the hour came round for the
distribution of the scanty ration, and then, indeed, the truth was
forced upon us in a new and startling light. Towards evening I was
seized with violent pains in the stomach, accompanied by a constant
desire to yawn and gape that was most distressing; but in a couple of
hours the extreme agony passed away, and on the 3rd I was surprised to
find that I did not suffer more. I felt, it is true, that there was some
great void within myself, but the sensation was quite as much moral
as physical. My head was so heavy that I could not hold it up; it was
swimming with giddiness, as though I were looking over a precipice.

My symptoms were not shared by all my companions, some of whom endured
the most frightful tortures. Dowlas and the boatswain especially, who
were naturally large eaters, uttered involuntary cries of agony,
and were obliged to gird themselves tightly with ropes to subdue the
excruciating pain that was gnawing their very vitals.

And this was only the second day of our misery! what would we not have
given for half, nay, for a quarter of the meagre r