" We fisted the sail together, and
after six or eight minutes of hard hauling and pulling and beating
down the sail, which was as stiff as sheet iron, we managed to get
it furied; and snugly furled it must be, for we knew the mate well
enough to be certain that if it got adrift again, we should be
called up from our watch below, at any hour of the night, to furl it.
I had been on the look-out for a moment to jump below and clap on
a thick jacket and south-wester; but when we got on deck we found that
eight bells had been struck, and the other watch gone below, so that
there were two hours of dog watch for us, and a plenty of work to
do. It had now set in for a steady gale from the south-west; but we
were not yet far enough to the southward to make a fair wind of it,
for we must give Terra del Fuego a wide berth. The decks were
covered with snow, and there was a constant driving of sleet. In fact,
Cape Horn had set in with good earnest. In the midst of all this,
and before it became dark, we had all the studding-sails to make up
and stow away, and then to lay aloft and rig in all the booms, fore
and aft, and coil away the tacks, sheets, and halyards.
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