THE RETURN OF DAYLIGHT. 241 



The surgeon hands me in the report of his monthly 

 examination. The men are generally in good condi- 

 tion, and there is some falling off among the officers in 

 weight. Danenhower's case is pronounced a very crit- 

 ical one, it being a matter of certainty almost that he 

 will lose the sight of his left eye. The condition of 

 the officers is classed thus : excellent, one ; good, five ; 

 fair, one ; poor, one. Of the twenty-three men, excel- 

 lent, eighteen ; good, five ; and the natives are in ex- 

 cellent health. We commenced to get our provisions 

 in some kind of order on the quarter deck and in the 

 deck-house. When the leak occurred, everything was 

 hurriedly broken out of the hold and store-rooms for- 

 ward and placed anywhere. 



February 5th, Thursday. — The Sewell pump is kept 

 going all day at the rate of thirty-five strokes a minute, 

 holding the water in check with that work ; sixteen 

 inches of water stand in the fire-room bilge all day. 

 Lest any one should read this journal without my being 

 on hand to explain the question, Why is not the sixteen 

 inches pumped out at once, and the ship kept dry at 

 the rate of thirty-five strokes of the pump per minute ? 

 it may as well be answered here : The ship is heeled 

 3° to starboard, and naturally the greatest accumula- 

 tion of water takes place on that side. But the suction 

 of the Sewell pump is on the port side of the keelson, 

 and the only communication from one bilge to the other 

 is by a small hole about large enough for a piece of 

 eighteen thread ratline stuff to reeve through. We 

 tried to bore larger holes, but the keelson is so full of 

 bolts and fastenings as to stop us. Hence the water 

 must be allowed to rise until it will flow over the keel- 

 son to port, in order to take it out by the Sewell pump. 



Melville keeps driving ahead at his combination of 



16 



