Sl'lT'/HEROKTs^ AND ORKKNLAM). 27 



a great roaring and noise, as if a watermill were agoing ; 

 and this same noise the ships make likewise when they cut 

 through the sea. 



It is also to be observed, that the waves dash against one 

 another aaIicu the wind changeth, and cross over through 

 one another, with great clashing over the ships, before they 

 move all one and the same way. 



I did not observe here the sea water so clear, nor found it 

 so salt as near the ice ; it may be by reason of the shallow 

 ground or bottom, and the many fresh rivers that now run 

 into it, or because the frost clcareth the water more. 



Concerning the manner of their sailing, they sail and 

 change their ways and sails according as they think fit. If 

 there be a fresh gale, they make use of all their sails ; whereof 

 they call the first the foch or foresail, the middlemost 

 sclnunfer or mainsail, and the third the hasan or mizen- 

 sail. 



In hard storms they furl the foresail, and sail with only 

 mainsail and mizensail. In the greatest storm of all, with 

 these sails reefed or half tied in, as they call it, or with the 

 mizensail half furled up ; this they do because the ship goeth 

 the stedier by reason of the wind, or else it would rowle too 

 much up and down in the sea, and the water would dash in 

 too much on the sides thereof. 



One man stands always at the helm to steer the ship, but 

 in hard weather ten men can hardly hold the helm, where- 

 fore they fasten it with a tackle, and so let it go to and fro 

 as the compass directs them. 



In and after a storm we have oftentimes strangers come to 

 visit us in our ships, viz., hlackhirds, starlings, and all sorts 

 of small birds, that have lost their way in a storm from the 

 land, and fly to the ships to save themselves and prolong 

 their lives, when others fly about till they are spent, and 

 then fall into the sea and are drowned. 



The lumhs and other water-fowl come not near us, which 



