it is, nor whether it is forenoon or afternoon. Without keeping a diary or
record of some kind, it would be difficult for many to keep a sure run of
the date. Ordinarily, one sits down early in the morning _to wait for the
evening to draw by_, and often it happens, when it seems to him that he
has waited the length of three days on the land, he is mortified by the
announcement that it is yet far from being noon! An eternal present seems
to swallow up both the past and the future. After a week or two of such
weary waiting, one feels as if he had forgotten almost every thing that
happened before the day of his leaving home. I remarked one day to a
company of passengers on deck, that I could scarcely recall any thing that
had happened in the past; indeed, it required quite an effort to remember
that I had ever been in America, or anywhere else except on the old
"Manhattan" in an everlasting voyage. "Yes," observed one of the company,
"and I heard a fellow say yesterday that time seemed so long to him, that
he had really forgotten how many children he had." There is little doubt,
that if a ship-load of passengers could be suddenly and unexpectedly
landed upon the grassy slope of a verdant hillside; many would under
momentary impulse of overwhelming pleasure, kiss the dear earth, as
Columbus did on landing at San Salvador, if, indeed, extreme joy did not
impel them to make themselves ridiculous by imitating old Nebuchadnezzar,
in commencing to graze on the herbage! But the longest day must have an
end, and so have sea voyages.



The First Sight of Land.


On Saturday morning, July 3rd, everybody came upon deck in hope of seeing
land. A report was soon circulated, that the sailors with their