It was found that only a few pints of rain-water had fallen into the barrel to this small quantity the sailors were about to add what they could by wringing out the saturated sails, when Curtis made them desist from their intention.
"Stop, stop!" he said, "we must wait a moment; we must see whether this water from the sails is drinkable." I looked at him in amazement.

Why should not this be as drinkable as the other?
He squeezed a few drops out of one of the folds of a sail into the tin pot, and put it to his lips.

To my surprise, he rejected it immediately, and upon tasting it for myself I found it not merely brackish, but briny as the sea itself.

The fact was that the canvas had been so long exposed to the action of the waves, that it had become thoroughly impregnated by salt, which of course was taken up again by the water that fell upon it.

Disappointed we were; but with several pints of water in our possession, we were not only contented for the present, but sanguine in our prospect for the future..