esulted in making _one
continuous_ line of vessels, wreck touching wreck, along the coast for
many, many miles. Hundreds of miles of the Atlantic coast beaches would
have been walled in by the wrecks could they have come on to the strand
at one time, and all the dwellers along the coast, outside of the towns,
would have been placed in independent circumstances by wrecking their
cargoes.

During this wild night, while the paper canoe was safely stowed in the
rushes of the marsh at the cape, and its owner was enjoying the warmth
of the young astronomer's fire at the inlet, less than twenty miles
from us, on the dangerous edge of Ocracoke shoals, the searching party
of the yacht Julia were in momentary expectation of going to the
bottom of the sound. For hours the gallant craft hung to her anchors,
which were heavily backed by all the iron ballast that could be
attached to the cables. Wave after wave swept over her, and not a man
could put his head above the hatches. Then, as she rolled in the sea,
her cabin-windows went under, and streams of water were forced through
the ports into the confined space which was occupied by the little
party. For a time they were in imminent danger, for the vessel dragged
anchor to the edge of the shoal, and with a heavy thud the yacht
struck on the bottom. All hopes of ever returning to Newbern were
lost, when the changing tide swung the boat off into deeper water,
where she rode out the storm in safety.

Before morning the wind shifted, and by nine o'clock I retraced my steps
to the cape, and on Tuesday rowed down to Hatteras Inlet, which was
reached a little past noon. Before attempting to cross this dangerous
tidal gate-way of the ocean I hugged the shore close to its edge, and
paused to make myself familiar with the sand-hills of the opposite side,
a mile away, which were to serve as the guiding-beacons in the passage.
How often had I, lying awake at night, thought of and dreaded the
crossing of this ill-omened inlet! It had given me much mental
suffering. Now it was before me. Here on my right was the great sound,
on my left the narrow beach island, and out through the portal of the
open inlet surged and moaned under a leaden sky that old ocean which now
seemed to frown at me, and to say: "Wait, my boy, until the inlet's
waves deliver you to me, and I will put you among my other victims for
your temerity."

As I gazed across the current I remarked that it did not seem very
rough, t