THE ALBATROSS. 219 



had my men crawled back under the hurricane- 

 house than a tremendous breaching sea boarded 

 us over the weather side the whole length of the 

 vessel, staving bulwarks and clearing everything 

 off deck — lee boats, craft, oars, everything but 

 our try-works, weather boat and cook's galley. 



The hurricane continued with unabated fury 

 until eight o'clock the next morning. Then it 

 steadily died out, and at noon it was nearly calm. 

 But as the wind went down the sea came up. The 

 waves rose to a dizzy height. 



Despite the difficulty in keeping our footing — 

 for the ship tossed and rolled helplessly with not 

 a stitch of canvas to steady her — all hands were 

 busy clearing away the wreck, for a tangle of 

 rigging still remained, and there were several 

 spars alongside, though fortunately none of them 

 end-on. 



There was a calm for the space of four hours, 

 and during that calm the ship was covered with 

 birds, which had been blown off from the land — 

 gulls, hawks, boobies, parrots, cockatoos, cranes 

 and pheasants — bright-colored waifs, wearied with 

 the storm and so eager for a place to rest that 

 they forgot their natural fears of one another and 

 of human kind. They perched on the tops of 

 the broken masts ; they sat upon the dismantled 



