238 . SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



he scrambled up into the vacant space, and took the boy 

 from the hands of the cajDtain, whom he then assisted 

 to follow them. In about an hour they were joined by 

 Vincent and Vantaure from the forecastle. There were 

 then five individuals closely cooped together ; as they 

 sat, they were obliged to bend their bodies for want of 

 heio;ht above them, whilst the water reached as hioh 

 as their waists ; from which irksome position, one at a 

 time obtained some relief, by stretching at full length 

 on the barrels in the hold, squeezing himself close up 

 to the keelson." What a situation ! To rightly con- 

 ceive its horrors, we must know that their only means 

 of distinguishing day from night, was by the light 

 which struck from above into the sea, and was reflected 

 up through the cabin skylight, and thence through the 

 trap-hatch into the lazarette. " The day and night of 

 Tuesday the l7th, and of Wednesday the 18th, passed 

 without relief, without food, almost without hope ; but 

 each encouraged the others when neither could hope 

 for himself ; endeavouring to assuage the pangs of 

 hunger by chewing the bark stripped off from the hoops 

 of the casks. Want of fresh air threatening them with 

 death from suffocation, the mate worked almost inces- 

 santly for two days and one night, in endeavoming, 

 with his knife, to cut a hole through the hull."" 



There is something very terrible in contemplating 

 such a position, in seeing the mad energy of the mate 

 thus to cut a hole, which would have caused instant 

 destruction to the sufferers, since it was solely owing to 

 this confined air that the vessel floated. Bad as the 



