140 FROM MADEIRA TO THE BARRIER 



on which it is not necessary to use the pumps now and 

 then. When the engine was stopped, we found it was 

 sufficient to take a ten minutes' turn at the hand-pump 

 every morning; that was all the "leaking" amounted 

 to. Oh no! there was nothing wrong with the Fram's 

 hull. On the other hand, there might be a word or 

 two to say about the rigging; if this was not all it 

 should have been, the fault lay entirely with the plaguy 

 considerations of our budget. On the foremast we had 

 two squaresails; there ought to have been four. On 

 the jib-boom there were two staysails; there was room 

 enough for three, but the money would not run to it. 

 In the Trades we tried to make up for the deficiency by 

 rigging a studding-sail alongside the foresail and a sky- 

 sail above the topsail. I will not assert that these 

 improvised sails contributed to improve the vessel's 

 appearance, but they got her along, and that is a great 

 deal more important. We made very fair progress 

 southward during these September days, and before the 

 month was half over we had come a good way into the 

 tropical belt. No particularly tropical heat was felt, at 

 any rate by us men; and as a rule the heat is not 

 severely felt on board ship in open sea so long as the 

 vessel is moving. On a sailing-ship, lying becalmed 

 with the sun in the zenith, it might be warmer than 

 one would wish ; but in case of calms we had the engine 

 to help us, so that there was always a little breeze 

 that is, on deck. Down below it was worse ; sometimes 



