such as Broadhead, Charley, and Olsen; but most of the older men are practically half dead. I think the most remarkable of all of a sailor’s characteristics is the rapidity with which they forget their hardships; for let Jack get up into the balmy Trades again and all of his misery and pain vanish, the memory of what he has but just endured fades away, and when he has been ashore for a week at the end of the voyage, he is quite ready again to face the snow-thickened gales of Cape Horn. All hopes of a rapid passage have now been abandoned, for we have been ten weeks at sea to-day and are not yet around Cape Horn. It will be recalled that we were in the longitude of the Cape a few days ago, but heaven only knows when we can make up what we have lost since then. Our distance east of the Horn now is not more than seventy-five miles, and it does seem remarkable that we cannot make those few miles of westing; and we see now why all the sailing directions say, “Whatever you do, _make westing! make westing!_” Even though the wind is at southwest, as we have had it almost constantly, one would think that by standing well to the southward a ship could get a lay up past the Cape; but what with a two-knot easterly current, two points of leeway, and 22° of easterly variation, not to mention her being seven points off the wind under such short canvas, it is actually impossible. A yacht might do it, for she could go to windward under a storm-try-sail to an appreciable extent; but if a square-rigger holds her own and makes no easting on the _port_ tack with the wind blowing hard from the southwest off Cape Horn, she is doing very well. At five this morning the wind backed to south and hope glowed warm in the hearts of the men; but it didn’t take it long to shift back again to its old quarter, between southwest and west-southwest, and the old man now makes no bones about our being real _bona fide_ Jonahs. It is growing colder, too, the noon temperature being 31°, though no lower at night, but the wind is as cutting and clammy and dank as the breath of an iceberg. Some ship-masters, on account of the prolonged head gales and seas of Cape Horn, prefer the Good Hope voyage when bound from North Atlantic ports to California or British Columbia; but while the winds are fair in the Southern Ocean on this course, the distance is so much greater that it is doubtful whether or not there is any advantage in it. The latest example is the case of the British ship “Wasdale,” which reached San Francisco not very long ago, one hundred and sixty-five days from London _via_ Good Hope, having sailed the enormous distance of twenty-four thousand five hundred and twenty-six miles; the Horn voyage averages three weeks less in time than the above and six thousand miles less in distance. The “Wasdale” must be a smart ship to cover nearly twenty-five thousand miles in that time.