or remark on the discovery, for in a moment or two we began to oppose
the wildness of the open main, and the hour of our real trial set in.
For the first time we could now appreciate the full force of the gale.
Good Heavens, how it blew! The waters seemed alive and in direst
convulsion. Everywhere huge walls of breakers were constantly upheaved
to be felled and shattered with a roar as of some terrific cannonade;
while the air became the arena for a helter-skelter tossing of sheets of
spray, clots of froth, and spirts of brine, which plentifully assailed
our poor boat in their madness, and, besides partially filling her with
slush, encased every man in a complete coating of ice. If our craft had
not been modeled with the very highest degree of skill, and if our
steersman had not been one of a thousand, we could have made no headway
at all in this appalling tumult. As it was, our advance was of the
weakest, and its success seemed very doubtful, let our efforts be what
they might. Not but what we could sufficiently hold our own in the swirl
of the vanquished waves; but when they swooped upon us in their full
stature, they not only sent the boat back as if she had been a mere
feather, but with a second's awkwardness on the part of old Bill they
would have flung her clean over from stem to stern, and our places among
the living would have been vacant. Having strained every nerve for
nearly two hours, we were still but part way through the breakers, while
some of the men began to complain of fatigue; with which old Bill seized
a favorable opportunity to put the boat about, and we were swept ashore
on the beach as in the twinkling of an eye. Here, we secured our boat by
hauling her high and dry on the strand; freed her from the slush and
water which had gained in her bottom; and then retired to the leeward of
a range of sand hills near by, to recruit our energies.

With full leisure to ponder over the difficulties confronting our
expedition, some few of the crew now began to 'speak it foully,' and