But I must
not let myself loose upon this theme again, or we shall never get
to sea.
Liberty over without any trouble arising, and all hands
comfortably on board again, the news ran round that we were to
sail in the morning. So, after a good night's rest, we cast
loose from the wharf, and, with a little assistance from the same
useful tug that brought us in, got fairly out to sea. All sail
was set to a strong, steady north-wester, and with yards canted
the least bit in the world on the port tack, so that every stitch
was drawing, we began our long easterly stretch to the Horn,
homeward bound at last.
Favoured by wind and weather, we made an average run of one
hundred and eighty miles per day for many days, paying no
attention to "great circle sailing," since in such a slow ship
the net gain to be secured by going to a high latitude was very
small, but dodging comfortably along on about the parallel of
48deg. S., until it became necessary to draw down towards "Cape
Stiff," as that dreaded extremity of South America, Cape Horn, is
familiarly called by seamen. As we did so, icebergs became
numerous, at one time over seventy being in sight at once. Some
of them were of immense size--one, indeed, that could hardly be
fitly described as an iceberg, but more properly an ice-field,
with many bergs rising out of it, being over sixty miles long,
while some of its towering peaks were estimated at from five
hundred to one thousand feet high.
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