Marble was exceedingly uneasy during that second night. He remained
on deck with me the whole of the morning watch; not that he distrusted
my discretion in the least, but because he distrusted the wind and the
land. I never saw him in so much concern before, for it was his habit
to consider himself a timber of the ship, that was to sink or swim
with the craft.
"Miles," said he, "you and I know something of these 'bloody
currents,' and we know they take a ship one way, while she looks as
fiercely the other as a pig that is dragged aft by the tail. If we had
run down the 50th degree of longitude, now, we might have had plenty
of sea-room, and been laying past the Cape, with this very wind; but,
no, the old fellow would have had no islands in that case, and he
never could be happy without half-a-dozen islands to bother him."
"Had we run down the 50th degree of longitude," I answered, "we should
have had twenty degrees to make to get round the Horn; whereas, could
we only lay through the Straits of Le Maire, six or eight of those
very same degrees would carry us clear of everything."
"Only lay through the Straits of Le Maire, on the 10th November, or
what is the same thing in this quarter of the world, of May, and with
less than nine hours of day-light! And such day-light, too! Why, our
Newfoundland fogs, such stuff as I used to eat when a youngster and a
fisherman, are high noon to it! Soundings are out of the question
hereabouts; and, before one has hauled in the deep-sea, with all its
line out, his cut-water may be on a rock.
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