n at
length the night closed down upon us, and the stars came winking mistily
out from between the driving clouds, the conviction came to me that
something had gone lamentably wrong, and that to continue the search any
further in the direction that we had been pursuing would be useless.

The question was: What had happened? I could think of but two possible
explanations of our failure to find the boats; one of which was that
they had been fallen in with and been picked up by a passing ship, while
the other was that they had experienced bad weather, which had driven
them out of their course. If the first explanation happened to be the
correct one, well and good--our missing comrades were safe; but if the
second explanation was to account for our non-success, in what direction
ought we to continue our search? The question was a very difficult one
to answer with any approach to accuracy, but an approximation to the
truth might be arrived at. I reasoned thus: The boats were undoubtedly
within the limits of the trade wind when we parted with them, and the
only disturbing influence that they would be likely to meet with in that
region would be that of the hurricane that we had encountered.
Reasoning thus, I went below and produced a chart of the North
Atlantic,--it was a French one, reckoning its longitude from the
meridian of Paris; but that difficulty was to be easily overcome,--and
upon it I forthwith proceeded to prick off, as accurately as the data in
my possession would permit, first, the spot where we had parted company
with the other boats; secondly, our own course and distance up to the
moment when the hurricane struck us; and thirdly, the supposititious
course and distance of each of the boats up to the moment when the
hurricane would probably strike them. The observations I had personally
made as to the bearing and course of the centre of the storm had
originally led me to the conclusion that the other boats had probably
escaped it altogether; and now, as I went over the matter afresh, I
could not persuade myself that they had encountered anything worse than
a mere fringe of it, a breeze strong enough perhaps to compel them to
run before it for a few hours, but nothing more. Assuming, then, this
to be the case, I calculated as nearly as I could the probable direction
of the wind when the gale struck them, and the number of hours during
which they would be likely to be compelled to run before it, pricking
off