Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/67

 the same canoes to-day that they did two hundred years ago. These vessels are made of bark sewed together with shreds of sealskin. They are very frail and require constant bailing. I have read in The Missionary Herald  that since our visit the Fuegians have become civilized, and that many of them have been converted to the  Christian religion; and now they live in houses, sit at  the table, and eat with knives and forks.

Directly overhead are the celebrated Magellan Clouds, three in number, two large and one smaller. They are of a dusky, leaden gray color, and look like three burnt  holes in the sky. They are separate from each other, though close together, but when they become one, look  out for squalls and take in all your canvas. We took our final leave of these dreary regions on the 20th. The land had but just disappeared from our view, when we  were struck by a terrible gale, in which probably the Sea  Gull was foundered, and twenty as noble lads as ever  trod a ship’s deck found a watery grave. The Sea Gull  was never seen or heard of afterwards. The next day we passed the island of Diego Ramieres.

"Sail, ho!" cried the lookout from aloft.

"Where away?" sang out the officer of the deck.

"Right ahead," was the response.

In a short time a vessel was seen from the deck. She looked like a very large ship, broadside on, with her foretop-gallant-mast gone. The captain sent below for his speaking-trumpet to hail her, but by the time it  arrived the stranger had vanished from sight. This is an illusion very common in these latitudes. It is called by the sailors the "Flying Dutchman." This day might