io LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [IV. 



smart yachtsman would have been scandalized at our decks, 

 lumbered up with hen-coops, sacks of coal, and other 

 necessaries, which, like the Queen of Spain's legs, not only 

 ought never to be seen, but must not be supposed evert to 

 exist, on board a tip -top craft. 



By the evening, the gale, which had been blowing all day, 

 had increased to a perfect hurricane. At nine o'clock we 

 let go a second anchor ; and I confess, as we sat comfort- 

 ably round the fire in the bright cheerful little cabin, and 

 listened to the wind whistling and shrieking through the 

 cordage, that none of us were sorry to find ourselves in 

 port on such a night, instead of tossing on the wild Atlantic 

 — though we little knew that even then the destroying 

 angel was busy with the fleet of fishing-boats which had 

 put to sea so gallantly on the evening of our arrival. By 

 morning the neck of the gale was broken, and the sun shone 

 brightly on the white rollers as they chased each other to 

 the shore ; but a Queen's ship was steaming into the bay, 

 with sad news of ruin out to seaward, — towing behind her, 

 boats, water-logged, or bottom upwards, — while a silent 

 crowd of women on the quay were waiting to learn on what 

 homes among them the bolt had fallen. 



About twelve o'clock the Glasgow packet came in, and a 

 few minutes afterwards I had the honour of receiving on 

 my quarter-deck a gentleman who seemed a cross between 

 the German student and swell commercial gent. On his 

 head he wore a queer kind of smoking-cap, with the peak 

 cocked over his left ear; then came a green shooting-jacket, 

 and flashy silk tartan waistcoat, set off by a gold chain, hung 

 about in innumerable festoons, — while light trousers and 

 knotty Wellington boots completed his costume, and made 

 the wearer look as little like a seaman as need be. It 

 appeared, nevertheless, that the individual in question was 

 Mr. Ebenezer Wyse, my new sailing-master ; so I accepted 

 Captain C.'s strong recommendation as a set-off against the 

 silk tartan ; explained to the new comer the position he was 

 to occupy on board, and gave orders for sailing in an hour. 



