the waist watching the land draw nearer and nearer, while the captain stood on the cabin-house motionless, except when he slightly revolved his arm as a signal to the helmsman to hold her up all he could between the puffs. Oh, how deserted and bleak the immense gray-brown cliffs and snow-streaked hills of Staten Land appeared, broken now and then by gigantic fissures which extended far inland between vertical walls, against which the sea broke furiously, throwing cascades of spray high into the air! Astern, too, the view was equally rugged and grand, for across the Straits of Le Maire we could see the ragged coast of Tierra del Fuego and the massive white cone of the Bell Mountain rising up beyond the Bay of Good Success. All at once it became apparent to us that we were holding a better wind, the land no longer seemed to advance upon us, and at the end of another half-hour, during which no one seemed to scarcely breathe, to our unspeakable joy it was plain that the worst was over and that, bar accident, we would fetch by without further anxiety; and presently the skipper turned to Louis, the Frenchman (for this splendid seaman had steered the ship beautifully since eight o’clock), and said, “Now give her a good rap-full”; in thirty minutes more all danger was over and we stowed that upper maintop-sail which had done such noble work. One +P.M.+ The wind has risen to a full gale with puffs of almost hurricane force; and though we are still protected by the land, the sea is running high, probably thirty feet from crest to trough, and breaking in an ugly manner. At noon the order was passed, “All hands haul up the foresail.” This was the first occasion on which it was blowing too hard to carry that sail; and when it has to be stowed it is blowing what sailors call a heavy gale. The wind, indeed, almost blew the breath back into one’s throat; but the brave old ship behaved finely, and after the foresail was hauled up, no matter how high or fast the advancing wave was or how suddenly it broke, the back-wash would rush out from the vessel’s side, and, meeting the on-rushing sea, they would shoot far up into the air, to be blown in drift all over the ship, while she rode calmly and safely over the crest. We have not set the spencer lately, as we have been wearing every few hours, which would necessitate brailing it up every time; I was surprised that the captain didn’t set it this morning, but he seemed to depend more upon the maintop-sail. There are two vessels to windward knocking about under easy sail as we are,--one a small bark, the other a large four-masted ship, square-rigged all over,--waiting for a slant. My wife has recovered her equanimity now (about three in the afternoon), for she was not unnaturally upset by the events of this morning. She behaved astonishingly well, though, during that crucial hour, and her courage and fortitude cannot be too highly commended. Latitude, 54° 20′ south; longitude, 64° 30′ west. +July 12+