186 NEWFOUNDLAND 



The vessel pitched so abominably that sleep was out of the 

 question. Next morning we were about thirty miles off, 

 steaming about, and peering through the mist without seeing 

 a single spout ; and the next day was but a repetition of the 

 previous one. On the third night it began to blow great 

 guns, and I was flung out of the bunk right across the 

 cabin, narrowly escaping some broken ribs ; at any rate I 

 was sore for a week afterwards. 



Those who have been across the Atlantic in a breeze in 

 one of the great floating palaces have no conception of what 

 it meant to weather out half a gale in a little 95-foot whaler. 

 On the one you can sleep, walk, and eat in comfort ; in the 

 other you are tossed about like a floating cork. Once, whilst 

 crossing the cabin, I was flung clean up to the ceiling, and 

 just saved my head from striking the wood by putting up 

 my arm. The only way to obtain any rest was to be nailed 

 in one's bunk, which, with straps and ties, I did with com- 

 parative success. 



During the third night Captain Nilsen decided to run to 

 the coast for shelter, and we only reached a pretty little bay, 

 called Petty Fort, in time, for it was now blowing a full 

 gale. Here we lay for twelve hours, and I went ashore 

 to try and buy some fresh meat, as a diet of salt junk, 

 ship-biscuit, and doubtful coffee had somewhat chilled my 

 enthusiasm. 



Sheep were scarce, and the houses of the owners had to 

 be hunted for amongst the rocks, there being no roads ; but 

 at last I discovered a man whose wife, he said, would be 

 only too willing to sell me a lamb. The good lady, however, 

 at first refused point-blank to sell, as she required the four 

 she possessed for her winter knitting. A loud argument 

 now ensued between the wife and her lord and master, each 



