m at
all seasons of the year enabled him to do. Between these two lines, he
said, the steamer, if she could neither steam nor sail after the gale,
had drifted. And that she could neither steam nor sail he had good
reason to suppose from the account of her brought in by the vessels
above mentioned. A certain point was marked on the chart as being the
spot where the searching vessels might expect to fall in with the wreck.

While these preparations were being made, two ships fell in with the
wreck and relieved the crew. This, however, was not known at the time
by the anxious friends on shore. The cutters sailed on their mission,
and reached the indicated spot in the sea, where, of course, their
assistance was now unnecessary. But when the vessels that had relieved
the crew of the wreck arrived in harbour and reported where the wreck
had been last seen, it was found to be within a few miles of the spot
indicated by Maury!

Thus, upon very slight data, a man of science and observation was
enabled, while seated in his study, to follow the drift of a wrecked
vessel over the pathless deep, and to indicate to a rescue party, not
only the exact course they ought to steer, but the precise spot where
the wreck should be found.

The waves of the ocean are by no means so high as people imagine. Their
appearance in the Atlantic or Pacific, when raised by a violent storm,
is indeed very awful, and men have come to speak of them as being
"mountains of water." But their sublime aspect and their tumultuous
state of agitation have contributed much to deceive superficial
observers as to their real height. Scientific men have measured the
height of the waves.

Not many years ago a vessel, while crossing the Atlantic, was overtaken
by a violent storm. The sea rose in its might; the good ship reeled
under the combined influence of wind and waves. While the majority of
the passengers sought refuge from the driving spray in the cabin, one
eccentric old gentleman was seen skipping about the deck with unwonted
activity--now on the bulwarks, now on the quarter-deck, and anon in the
rigging; utterly regardless of the drenching sea and the howling wind,
and seeming as though he were a species of human stormy petrel. This
was the celebrated Dr Scoresby; a man who had spent his youth and
manhood in the whale-fishing; who, late in life, entered the Church,
and, until the day of his death, took a special delight in directing the
attenti