THE OCEAN VOYAC.I". 131 



degree of southern latitude. Tlie weather compared to 

 that of the same degree in the Atlantic was far less cold, 

 though more foggy and the stonns were not as severe. 



The waves were still rolling high, though much more 

 regular than was experienced in the strait which lies be- 

 tween the archipelago off the New South Shetland coast 

 and the Fireland; this strait is hardly ninety miles in 

 width. We must, however, take into consideration the 

 fact that the powerful northern ocean current, which 

 runs along the coast of Patagonia, adds materially to the 

 turbulence of the sea in that region. 



I remember the picture in Meyer's Universal Encyclo- 

 pedia, well, quite well; it is a perfect representation of 

 facts and even the portraiture of the ocean has not at all 

 been exaggerated. The waves reach an almost incredible 

 height; I have seen them roll up many a day, reaching 

 a fluctuating line that would easily measure twenty-five 

 or thirty feet from the foot to their highest curve. The 

 ''lambkins," as the sailors often call the splashing crowns 

 of foam, are frequently from sixty to seventy-five feet 

 long and twenty to thirty feet wide. Just such little 

 "lambkins" knocked in our ship's waist and broke our 

 mizzen mast. 



When we tried to set our main sail on Friday, the 19th, 

 the yard broke right off, probably in consequence of dam- 

 age which it had sustained before because the prevailing 

 breeze, though strong, did by no means blow hard enough 

 to warrant such an occurrence. The loss was soon re- 

 placed by the fore yard; of course we had to do without 

 sail on the fore mast. "We kept the southwestern course 

 without much interruption until Monday, the 22d, when 

 an immense whale came within a quarter of a mile of 

 our starboard; it. measured at least eighty to ninety feet 

 in length. It had become necessary for us to seek the 

 wide ocean, partly on account of the storm, partly on 

 account of the close proximity of dangerous trap cliffs, 

 which are quite numerous on this coast. What retarded 

 our progress most at the present stage was the extremely 

 poor condition of our sails and rigging, which, as already 



