After beating about the Horn for eight days, going only from forty
to eighty miles day after day, a fine breeze sprung up and we have
for twenty-four hours been going at the rate of ten knots an hour,
sometimes faster. To look out of the cabin windows and see the water
racing by makes one dizzy, and you hasten on deck to gratify the eye
with a longer range of sight.
12 M., we have made two hundred and fifty-nine miles the last
twenty-four hours, the best day’s run of the voyage thus far. In the
Gulf we made two hundred and fifty miles, and once nearly as much off
the River Plate.
One of the tiniest little fishes which we have seen was found on deck.
It was washed over the side yesterday when every twenty minutes a sea
came over the rail. The little thing shows us what the birds pick up
at sea. “The small and the great are there.” We are glad to see the
smallest thing in this region of wonders in the deep.
We are now fully round the Horn, having passed beyond 50° S., which
completed the semicircle. At 12 M. one day lately we had gone beyond
50° to 43°. Patches of blue sky appear. Our spirits are revived. The
ship seems to partake of our joy. Toward evening to-day she seemed to
the captain to be exerting herself beyond her strength, having on a
crowd of canvas. He ordered the royals to be taken down, to our regret;
but it relieved her. We are promised another race at daybreak should
the weather be fair.