pared to face the perils of the most stormy of
all oceans, the Atlantic. The run across lad the usual fortunes of all
voyages, and within a week after their departure from _terra firma_ they
saw a whale, who saw them with rather more indifference, for he lay
lounging on the surface until the steamer had nearly run over him. At
last he dived down, and was seen no more. Next day, while there was so
little wind, that all their light canvass was set, they saw the
phenomenon of a ship under close-reefed topsails. This apparent timidity
was laughed at by some of the passengers, but the more experienced
guessed that the vessel had come out of a gale, of which they were
likely to have a share before long, a conjecture which was soon
verified.

On the morning of the 9th day, the captain, discovering that the
barometer had fallen between two and three inches during the night, due
preparations were of course made to meet the storm. It came on in the
afternoon, a hurricane. Then followed the usual havock of boats and
canvass, the surges making a clean breach over the deck; the passengers,
of course, gave themselves up for lost, and even the crew are said to
have been pretty nearly of the same opinion. However, the wind went down
at last, the sea grew comparatively smooth, and in twenty-four hours
more, they found themselves on the banks of Newfoundland. The writer
thinks that it was fortunate for them that the storm had not caught them
in the short swell of these shallow waters, as was probably the case of
the President, whose melancholy fate so long excited, and still excites
a feeling of surprise and sorrow in the public mind.

It was lost in this very storm. Next day came another of the sea
wonders. The cry of land started them all from the dinner table; but the
land happened to be an immense field of ice, which, with the
inequalities of its surface and the effect of refraction, presented some
appearance of a wooded country. On that night the cry of "Light a-head,"
while they were still several hundred miles from land, excited new
astonishment. "All the knowing ones" clearly distinguished a magnificent
revolver. The paddles were accordingly stopped to have a cast of the
lead, but in another half hour it was ascertained that the revolver was
a newly risen star.

At length land was really seen, and after a run of fourteen days, they
cast anchor in the harbour of Halifax. But as Boston was their true
destination they steered for