' self has been forced to
give up half-formed settlements by the severity of the climate. We are
in the midst of a dark boisterous sea; over us, a dense, grey, cold sky.
The albatross, stormy petrel, and pintado are our companions; yet there
is a pleasure in stemming the apparently irresistible waves, and in
wrestling thus with the elements. I forget what writer it is who
observes, that the sublime and the ridiculous border on each other; I am
sure they approach very nearly at sea. If I look abroad, I see the
grandest and most sublime object in nature,--the ocean raging in its
might, and man, in all his honour, and dignity, and powers of mind and
body, wrestling with and commanding it: then I look within, round my
little home in the cabin, and every roll of the ship causes accidents
irresistibly ludicrous; and in spite of the inconveniences they bring
with them, one cannot choose but laugh. Sometimes, in spite of all usual
precautions, of cushions and clothes, the breakfast-table is suddenly
stripped of half its load, which is lodged in the lee scuppers, whither
the coal-scuttle and its contents had adjourned the instant before: then
succeed the school-room distresses of _capsized_ ink-stands, broken
slates, torn books, and lost places; not to mention the loss of many a
painful calculation, and other evils exquisite in their kind, but
abundantly laughable, especially, as it happened just now, if the
school-master is induced to measure his length on the deck, when in the
act of reprimanding the carelessness which subjects the slates and books
to these untoward chances.

_28th_.--Latitude 55 deg. 26' S., longitude 56 deg. 11' W. Captain Graham and
the first lieutenant still both very ill. At one o'clock this morning
the mercury in the barometer sunk to 28-09; at seven it rose again to
29-01. The thermometer is at 38 deg. of Fahrenheit, and we have had squalls
of snow and sleet, and a heavy sea. There are flocks of very small birds
about the ship, and we have seen a great many whales.

_30th_.--Latitude 56 deg. 51' S., longitude 59 deg. W.; the thermometer at 30 deg.
this morning, and 32 deg. at noon. A violent gale of wind from the
south-west; the only thing like a hard gale since we left England. I had
breakfast spread on the cabin deck, as it was not possible to secure any
thing on a table. Clarke, one of the quartermasters, had two ribs broken
by a fall on deck; and Sinclair, a very strong man, was taken ill after
bei