forward, even to me who had some experience, so well used had I
now become to the leisurely way of getting along. To the laziest
of ships, however, there comes occasionally a time when the
bustling, hurrying wind will take no denial, and you've got to
"git up an' git," as the Yanks put it. Such a time succeeded our
"batterfanging" about, after losing the trades. We got hold of a
westerly wind that, commencing quietly, gently, steadily, taking
two or three days before it gathered force and volume,
strengthened at last into a stern, settled gale that would brook
no denial, to face which would have been misery indeed. To
vessels bound east it came as a boon and blessing, for it would
be a crawler that could not reel off her two hundred and fifty
miles a day before the push of such a breeze. Even the CACHALOT
did her one hundred and fifty, pounding and bruising the ill-used
sea in her path, and spreading before her broad bows a far-
reaching area of snowy foam, while her wake was as wide as any
two ordinary ships ought to make. Five or six times a day the
flying East India or colonial-bound English ships, under every
stitch of square sail, would appear as tiny specks on the horizon
astern, come up with us, pass like a flash, and fade away ahead,
going at least two knots to our one. I could not help feeling a
bit home-sick and tired of my present surroundings, in spite of
their interest, when I saw those beautiful ocean-flyers devouring
the distance which lay before them, and reflected that in little
more than one month most of them would be discharging in
Melbourne, Sydney, Calcutta, or some other equally distant port,
while we should probably be dodging about in our present latitude
a little farther east.

After a few days of our present furious rate of speed, I came on