PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 19 



appearance : there was a large stock of coals 

 stowed in double rows along the quarter-deck 

 and gangways, leaving but a very narrow space 

 for the officers and men to pass. There were 

 three boats on the booms and two on the quar- 

 ters. On the skids over the quarter-deck were 

 two whale-boats, besides several immense sledges, 

 and whatever else could be stowed there. Large 

 spars, planks, and a hand-mast, two tons of po- 

 tatoes, provender for twenty sheep and ten pigs, 

 the sheep and pigs themselves, with sundry ducks 

 and fowls, occupied every other disposeable nook ; 

 and though, by a little method and skilful stow- 

 ing, all this mass of dead and living lumber had 

 been made to assume some degree of form and 

 regularity, yet it may be well imagined that there 

 was no superfluous space. 



The crew, when mustered at divisions on the 

 Sunday previous, presented to the view as fine 

 a body of men as could glad the heart of a com- 

 mander ; and, though experience had taught me 

 to distrust impressions of this kind, yet, when I 

 cast my eyes over the files, and, on a subsequent 

 inspection, saw the neatness and comfort con- 

 spicuous in the berths, I could not avoid drawing 

 a favourable omen for the future. 



Early in the morning of the 22d (the wind 

 having shifted in the night) we left our anchor- 

 age, still towed by the Rhadamanthus, and stood 



c °2 



