A VOYAGE IN THE NORTH SEAS. 



" A damn'd slippery sheet anchor the old un was made fast to, for 

 riding out the death storm/' said one of the men " And it's a 

 slippery way that same has been fish'd too, or I'm a seahorse/' 

 remarked an old boat-steerer. 



" Why so you are, Joe ; a marine may see that without a telescope," 

 replied the man who had spoken first. " Why you don't mean for to 

 go for to say that a free-trader's money ar'n't as good as another's, 

 and won't melt into grog as well as the king's own ?" " I say no- 

 thing, messmate," said Joe, giving at the same time a vigorous stroke 

 with his oar, " with a will ! men, a long stroke and a steady : the 

 ship is'n't where she was half an hour ago, and yon scud flying to the 

 nor'east is on no errand of good for ' those who go down to the sea in 

 ships, and do business on the mighty waters.' It's my mind that yon 

 dead old man's grin wasn't done for nothing !" 



Profound silence followed this remark of the old mariner ; the men 

 saw that the ship had drifted considerably to leeward, and that the 

 wind was again rising ; they, therefore, stretched themselves vigorously 

 to their oars, and strove through the stormy waters with the energy 

 of men whose nerves are strung by a sense of danger. They reached 

 the ship, and were standing among their companions, watching in 

 silence when the little vessel they had left would settle into the 

 waves. 



" Yonder goes the Albatross on her last dive/' said a voice in a 

 foreign accent, as the stern of the little craft burst out with a noise 

 which was heard distinctly above the roar of the wakening tempest, 

 and plunging down head-foremost, she vanished from the view " a 

 lovelier sea-boat never gladdened a seaman's eye, and a fleeter never 

 walked over the waters!" The men turned suddenly round to the 

 speaker, and saw that it was one of the rescued crew who had uttered 

 this characteristic elegy on his favourite vessel. His tall form was 

 bent from weakness, the tears streamed over his famine-furrowed 

 cheeks, and dropped off his matted black beard, while he strained 

 his eyes towards the spot where the agitated waters had closed over 

 the little sloop. The sympathising tars conveyed him to his destined 

 berth, while old Joe walked aft, casting his eye expressively up to the 

 flying scud, and muttering to himself : " I trust in God he hasn't the 

 power to work us no mischief, if so be as he is at the stirring up of 

 that hell broth but, good Lord ! he wore an awful grin on's face !" 

 For some time the crew were too busy in making the ship snug 

 (for, as old Joe had predicted, the storm returned with tenfold fury) 

 to allude further at that time to the sight which had been seen in the 

 cabin of the foundered sloop, but many a night-watch was spent 

 afterwards in the Labrador in listening to the yarns of old Joe about 

 the grand furniture of the bed-cabin of the Albatross, and many a 

 time the eyes which had looked death fearlessly in the face, amid 

 stormy winds and waters, quailed at the old mariner's description of 

 the hideous grin which despair and famine had carved on the features 

 of the old miser's corpse. 



For some days the storm continued to rage with unabated fury, so 

 that their only resource was to keep the vessel before it, and as it 

 blew from the south-east, they had reached the entrance of Davis's 



