Sometimes,-
generally towards noons,- it fell calm; once or twice a round copper
ball showed itself for a few moments in the place where the sun
ought to have been; and a puff or two came from the westward, giving
some hope that a fair wind had come at last. During the first two
days, we made sail for these puffs, shaking the reefs out of the
topsails and boarding the tacks of the courses; but finding that it
only made work for us when the gale set in again, it was soon given
up, and we lay-to under our close-reefs.
We had less snow and hail than when we were farther to the westward,
but we had an abundance of what is worse to a sailor in cold
weather- drenching rain. Snow is blinding, and very bad when coming
upon a coast, but, for genuine discomfort, give me rain with
freezing weather. A snow-storm is exciting, and it does not wet
through the clothes (which is important to a sailor); but a constant
rain there is no escaping from. It wets to the skin, and makes all
protection vain. We had long ago run through all our dry clothes,
and as sailors have no other way of drying them than by the sun, we
had nothing to do but to put on those which were the least wet.
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