THE OCEAN VOYAGE 115 



remains were turned over to the Atlantic about seven 

 o'clock in the evening, the ceremonies being conducted in 

 the same manner as were those which marked the burial 

 of Nabholz. 



It was during this hour that the first storm-birds or 

 "Mother Carey's Chickens," as they are generally called, 

 put in their appearance on board. It is evidently more 

 than a Bailor's superstition to connect the coming of these 

 animals with an approaching storm. The mariners take 

 it to be an infallible omen and not without some reason. 

 I made it a special point to observe this strange occur- 

 rence and can testify to the fact that whenever two or 

 three of these rare birds became visible we could reckon 

 upon a heavy storm, which would invariably follow with- 

 in a few hours. So it happened that we had a heavy 

 storm from W. N. W. during the night, which was par- 

 ticularly tempestuous at sun-rise. "We had fastened near- 

 ly all sails and the ship went with great difficulty until 

 the subsidence of the gale about noon-time, made it pos- 

 sible to have more sails set. 



"Wednesday night, after a short interval, the weather 

 looked again so gloomy and threatening that the rather 

 timely precaution of changing or reducing sails proved to 

 be an exceedingly wise one, as we were witnesses of an- 

 other gale from S. S. W., which made the wind much 

 rougher than the previous one. It did not change until 

 Thursday, the 21st, after it had been raging without the 

 slightest interruption for fifteen long hours. 



The night between Thursday and Friday passed com- 

 paratively quiet, though the air was cold and disagree- 

 able and the ship worked hard in the hollow of the waves. 

 About noon we noticed some short ends of old ship's-rope 

 driving close to our ship, followed later on by a row-boat, 

 which had evidently belonged to a larger vessel; it was 

 full of water and did not seem to have been in the position 

 very long, but had evidently broken adrift. The air was 

 gloomy and an ice-cold rain fell now and then. About 

 two o'clock another S. S. W. gale struck us, so that we 

 had to change sails again. W^e now followed W. to S. 



