CHAP. VI.] BOLT STARTED. 369 



general mass. It was then that numerous lanes 

 and holes of water ranged themselves in a line 

 exactly across the direction of the wind, almost 

 up and down the Straits ; and the land becoming 

 visible during a partial cessation of sleet, snow, 

 and rain, with which we had been refreshed, the 

 ice-mate, Mr. Green, imagined he could make 

 out several conical tents, from whose tops smoke, 

 as he thought, issued. Unfortunately, dark clouds 

 soon obscured that part of the land, which seemed 

 like an island, depriving us, for the present, of 

 the satisfaction which the realization of this idea 

 would have afforded. On inspecting the hull, 

 as was customary, it was discovered that one of 

 the copper bolts, situated in the eleventh plank 

 below the fore part of the main chains, on the 

 larboard side, had started, and projected one- 

 eighth of an inch outside the doubling ; a cir- 

 cumstance that made it necessary to cut beneath 

 the head and clinch it afresh. Again, while em- 

 ployed in clearing out the fore part of the bread- 

 room, for the purpose of getting at coals and 

 provisions, just below the broken stringer on the 

 starboard side, one of the through bolts of the 

 lining was found to have started, and, from the 

 mere collapsing of the after part of the ship, one 

 of the casks had been actually pressed to such a 

 degree, as to stick into the lining. Prudence, 

 therefore, required that the stowage should not 



B B 



