Page:Castaway on the Auckland Isles (IA castawayonauckla01musg).pdf/38

22 the skins; we shall soon have enough to make a suit of clothes each. This is seals' blood that I am writing with now, as our black ink is done. I think this will do very well. There is no getting it out of our clothes, although we use strong lye and soft soap, which we made ourselves. Monday is our washing day. We have strict regularity in all we do. Barometer 28⋅78; thermometer 36°.

Sunday, March 27, 1864.—During the first part of the last week the weather was very boisterous, and a good deal of hail and snow. The wind was generally from W.N.W., barometer sometimes as low as 28⋅62, and the thermometer was so low as 35°. Since Wednesday the weather has been tolerably fine, with fresh westerly winds and cloudy, though mild and pleasant weather. We have finished thatching the house, and find it very warm and comfortable. It has taken 5000 bundles of thatch, each bundle weighing a pound, so that the total weight of thatch on the sides and ends of the house is about two and a quarter tons. The roof remains covered with canvas. To-day I went in the boat up the harbour; I have not been there before. This harbour is rather narrow, but quite broad enough for any ship to work up. It is about half a mile wide in the narrowest place, which is about the entrance, and in some places it is about one and a half miles wide. I find that this is the proper place to anchor a vessel in; it is well sheltered from the prevailing winds, and there appears to be none of those sudden gusts of wind which are so frequent and dangerous in this part of the harbour. The depth of water in the middle harbour is from thirty fathoms at the entrance, gradually decreasing, and good anchorage will be found in from twelve down to four fathoms (stiff blue clay), about one mile and a half from the head of the harbour, and the water shallows so gradually for this mile and a half that a great deal of the head of the bay must be left dry at low water. It was half flood when I was up there.

There are several streams of beautiful water emptying