No pencil has ever yet given anything like the true effect of an
iceberg. In a picture, they are huge, uncouth masses, stuck in the
sea, while their chief beauty and grandeur,- their slow, stately
motion; the whirling of the snow about their summits, and the
fearful groaning and cracking of their parts,- the picture cannot
give. This is the large iceberg; while the small and distant islands,
floating on the smooth sea, in the light of a clear day, look like
little floating fairy isles of sapphire.
From a north-east course we gradually hauled to the eastward, and
after sailing about two hundred miles, which brought us as near to the
western coast of Terra del Fuego as was safe, and having lost sight of
the ice altogether,- for the third time we put the ship's head to the
southward, to try the passage of the Cape. The weather continued clear
and cold, with a strong gale from the westward, and we were fast
getting up with the latitude of the Cape, with a prospect of soon
being round. One fine afternoon, a man who had gone into the
fore-top to shift the rolling tackles, sung out, at the top of his
voice, and with evident glees- "Sail ho!" Neither land nor sail had
we seen since leaving San Diego; and any one who has traversed the
length of a whole ocean alone, can imagine what an excitement such
an announcement produced on board.
Pages:
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569