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The time when we were to take in our last hide , we had looked forward to , for sixteen months , as the first bright spot . The musicians were still there , upon their platform , scraping and twanging away , and a few people , apparently of the lower classes , were dancing . They had been waked out of their sleep , and as much alarmed at the scream as we were , and were hesitating whether to come on deck , when the second sound , coming directly from one of the berths , revealed the cause of the alarm . A depth as great as the height of St. Peter 's ! I stood on the forecastle , looking at the seas , which were rolling high , as far as the eye could reach , their tops white with foam , and the body of them of a deep indigo blue , reflecting the bright rays of the sun . Not a ripple upon the surface of the canvas ; not even a quivering of the extreme edges of the sail - so perfectly were they distended by the breeze . Many a dispute have I heard raging high between professed " beach-combers , " as to whether the hides should be stowed " shingling , " or back-to-back , and flipper-to-flipper ; " upon which point there was an entire and bitter division of sentiment among the savans . Beside this , having begun the voyage with very few clothes , he had taken up the greater part of his wages in the slop-chest , and it was every day a losing concern to him ; and , like all the rest of the crew , he had a hearty hatred of California , and the prospect of eighteen months or two years more of hide-droghing seemed completely to break down his spirit . It is usual , in voyages round the Cape from the Pacific , to keep to the eastward of the Falkland Islands ; but as it had now set in a strong , steady , and clear south-wester , with every prospect of its lasting , and we had had enough of high latitudes , the captain determined to stand immediately to the northward , running inside the Falkland Islands . Beside this difficulty , the yard over which we lay was cased with ice , the gaskets and rope of the foot and leach of the sail as stiff and hard as a piece of suctionhose , and the sail itself about as pliable as though it had been made of sheets of sheathing copper . All our standing rigging , fore and aft , was set up and tarred ; the masts stayed ; the lower and top-mast rigging rattled down , ( or up , as the fashion now is ;) and so careful were our officers to keep the rattlins taught and straight , that we were obliged to go aloft upon the ropes and shearpoles with which the rigging was swifted in ; and these were used as jury rattlins until we got close upon the coast . Between daylight and dark - that is , between nine o'clock and three - we saw thirty-four ice islands , of various sizes ; some no bigger than the hull of our vessel , and others apparently nearly as large as the one that we first saw ; though , as we went on , the islands became smaller and more numerous ; and , at sundown of this day , a man at the mast-head saw large fields of floating ice called " field-ice " at the south-east . Two long , heavy spars , called steeves , made of the strongest wood , and sharpened off like a wedge at one end , were placed with their wedge ends into the inside of the hide which was the centre of the book , and to the other end of each , straps were fitted , into which large tackles were hooked , composed each of two huge purchase blocks , one hooked to the strap on the end of the steeve , and the other into a dog , fastened into one of the beams , as far aft as it could be got . This is one of those petty frauds which every vessel practises in ports of inferior foreign nations , and which are lost sight of , among the countless deeds of greater weight which are hardly less common . I soon began to suspect the meaning of the thing , and was afterwards told that it was a compliment , and an offer to become the lady 's gallant for the rest of the evening , and to wait upon her home . He spent his own money and nearly all the stores among the half-bloods upon the beach , and being turned away , went up to the Presidio , where he lived the life of a desperate " loafer , " until some rascally deed sent him off " between two days , " with men on horseback , dogs , and Indians in full cry after him , among the hills . A pretty young girl was dancing , named , after what would appear to us the sacrilegious custom of the country - Espiritu Santo , when a young man went behind her and placed his hat directly upon her head , letting it fall down over her eyes , and sprang back among the crowd .