{"id":"01KG8AMH33Z9JDQ25H8KY4N3BF","cid":"bafkreidfefyt2ng5u2hrdisa6lq6pzoowjo5uyj5pe6qi7s7lueidgx3ua","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4602,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":4542,"text":"gleaming in snow-white barrenness and solitude. Unnumbered white\r\nalbatross were skimming the sea near by, and clouds of smaller white\r\nwings fell through the air like snow-flakes. High, towering in their\r\nown turbaned snows, the far-inland pinnacles loomed up, like the border\r\nof some other world. Flashing walls and crystal battlements, like the\r\ndiamond watch-towers along heaven’s furthest frontier.\r\n\r\nAfter leaving the latitude of the Cape, we had several storms of snow;\r\none night a considerable quantity laid upon the decks, and some of the\r\nsailors enjoyed the juvenile diversion of snow-balling. Woe unto the\r\n“middy” who that night went forward of the booms. Such a target for\r\nsnow-balls! The throwers could never be known. By some curious sleight\r\nin hurling the missiles, they seemed to be thrown on board by some\r\nhoydenish sea-nymphs outside the frigate.\r\n\r\nAt daybreak Midshipman Pert went below to the surgeon with an alarming\r\nwound, gallantly received in discharging his perilous duty on the\r\nforecastle. The officer of the deck had sent him on an errand, to tell\r\nthe boatswain that he was wanted in the captain’s cabin. While in the\r\nvery act of performing the exploit of delivering the message, Mr. Pert\r\nwas struck on the nose with a snow-ball of wondrous compactness. Upon\r\nbeing informed of the disaster, the rogues expressed the liveliest\r\nsympathy. Pert was no favourite.\r\n\r\nAfter one of these storms, it was a curious sight to see the men\r\nrelieving the uppermost deck of its load of snow. It became the duty of\r\nthe captain of each gun to keep his own station clean; accordingly,\r\nwith an old broom, or “squilgee,” he proceeded to business, often\r\nquarrelling with his next-door neighbours about their scraping their\r\nsnow on his premises. It was like Broadway in winter, the morning after\r\na storm, when rival shop-boys are at work cleaning the sidewalk.\r\n\r\nNow and then, by way of variety, we had a fall of hailstones, so big\r\nthat sometimes we found ourselves dodging them.\r\n\r\nThe Commodore had a Polynesian servant on board, whose services he had\r\nengaged at the Society Islands. Unlike his countrymen, Wooloo was of a\r\nsedate, earnest, and philosophic temperament. Having never been outside\r\nof the tropics before, he found many phenomena off Cape Horn, which\r\nabsorbed his attention, and set him, like other philosophers, to feign\r\ntheories corresponding to the marvels he beheld. At the first snow,\r\nwhen he saw the deck covered all over with a white powder, as it were,\r\nhe expanded his eyes into stewpans; but upon examining the strange\r\nsubstance, he decided that this must be a species of super-fine flower,\r\nsuch as was compounded into his master’s “_duffs_,” and other dainties.\r\nIn vain did an experienced natural philosopher belonging to the\r\nfore-top maintain before his face, that in this hypothesis Wooloo was\r\nmistaken. Wooloo’s opinion remained unchanged for some time.\r\n\r\nAs for the hailstones, they transported him; he went about with a\r\nbucket, making collections, and receiving contributions, for the\r\npurpose of carrying them home to his sweethearts for glass beads; but\r\nhaving put his bucket away, and returning to it again, and finding\r\nnothing but a little water, he accused the by-standers of stealing his\r\nprecious stones.\r\n\r\nThis suggests another story concerning him. The first time he was given\r\na piece of “duff” to eat, he was observed to pick out very carefully\r\nevery raisin, and throw it away, with a gesture indicative of the\r\nhighest disgust. It turned out that he had taken the raisins for bugs.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSHTQQRAP3YZ2NTWXT8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMH38NSAEFHXXF489G7W6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHP5BDHFNM7RM0ZS6CTD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.035Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.214Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}