w, except as the precursor of a
circular storm. I only hope that, should we encounter such a gale now,
we may get into the right corner of it, and that it will be travelling
in the right direction. I wish it would come in time to run up our
weekly average to a thousand miles by midday.

[Illustration: Effect of a Squall]

_Thursday, May 5th._--At 5 A.M. I was awakened by being nearly washed
out of bed on one side and by a deluge of water coming into the cabin
on the other. A squall had struck us, and we were tearing along with
the lee rail under water, the rain meanwhile pouring down in torrents.
The squall soon passed over, but there was every appearance of the
wind increasing, though the barometer still stood high. Squall
followed squall in quick succession, the wind increasing in force, and
the sea rapidly rising. It soon became plain that we were in for a
gale of some kind, and a very little later it became equally evident
that, in accordance with the law of storms, we must be in the
north-west quadrant of a circular storm, the centre of the disturbance
being somewhere to the south-east. Sails were furled, others were
reefed, and all was made fairly snug.

At noon we had run 136 miles to the north-east since the early
morning, but we had not quite reached our estimated weekly average of
a thousand miles. At noon we were in lat. 31 deg. 29' S., long. 105 deg. 48'
E., with Cape Entrecasteaux 546 miles distant. The barometer stood at
30.10, and the temperature fell to 60 deg..

Several times during the morning the lee cutter had been in imminent
danger of being lifted right out of the davits and carried away. About
two o'clock the topmasts were struck; an hour later the skylights were
covered over with tarpaulin, and a good deal of battening down took
place on deck. Below, the stewards were employed in tautening up
things which had been allowed to get rather slack during the long
spell of smooth weather which we have had of late, nothing like a
storm having been encountered for weeks, or indeed months.

Before dusk the lee cutter was got in-board, more reefs were taken in,
all was made snug on deck, and I might say stuffy below. Shortly after
this was accomplished we sailed out of the influence of the storm, the
centre travelling quickly away to the south-east of us. Thereupon we
shook out one or two reefs and set a mizen trysail to prevent the fine
weather lops coming on board; for the sea was beginning to go fas