ening again and the weather
looked squally.

At the beginning of the second dog-watch the same afternoon, just when
we had got everything snug aloft, it came on to blow again, although not
quite so fiercely as the previous evening; and it was a case of clew up
and furl with all the lighter canvas, the ship being kept under
close-reefed topsails and storm staysails, heading out again to sea on
the starboard tack.

Thus it continued all that night, squalls of rain and hail, with snow
and sleet at intervals for variety sake, sweeping over us, and the ship
having her decks washed frequently fore and aft by the heavy Southern
Ocean rollers. The next morning, though, it lightened again, and we had
a brief spell of fine weather until noon, when we had another buster of
it. This occurred just as Captain Snaggs was getting ready to take the
sun, and sent the first-mate down in the cabin to look at the
chronometer, and `stand by' in order to note the time when he sung out
`Stop!' so as to calculate our proper longitude.

The skipper could not get his observation of the sun, however, for the
sky, which a moment before had been bright and clear, clouded over again
in an instant; and the next minute we were all on board battling again
with another specimen of "Cape Horn weather," too busy to think even
where we might be or what latitude or longitude we had fetched. We
might, indeed, have been anywhere, for the heavens were black as night,
though it was midday, and sky and sea met each other in one vast
turmoil, so that it was impossible to see half a cable's length off the
ship!

So it went on for four days, the gale blowing for short periods in angry
gusts and then easing down for the space of a watch perhaps, the squalls
alternating with spells of fine weather; until, on the fifth morning, we
sailed into a comparatively calm sea, running free, with a full sheet on
the starboard tack, before a bright, cheery nor'-westerly breeze.

At noon, when the skipper was able at last to take the sun for the first
time for six days, he found, on working out our reckoning, that we were
in latitude 58 degrees 5 minutes South, and longitude 82 degrees 10
minutes West. In other words, we were considerably to the westwards of
the Horn, and fairly on the bosom of the placid Pacific, as indeed its
smooth waters already testified.

"Hooray, b'ys; we've doubled the durned Cape at last, I guess!" shouted
out Captain Snaggs from the break of t