80 VIEW FEOM THE CLIFFS. 



had reached the summit of the cHfF I was almost 

 blown over it. The force of the wdnd was so great 

 that I was obliged to steady myself against a rock 

 while making my observations. Knorr, who accom- 

 panied me, lost his cap, and it went sailing out over 

 the sea as if a mere feather. The scene was but a 

 broader panorama of that which I described in this 

 journal yesterday. It was a grand, wild confusion of 

 the elements. The little schooner, far down beneath 

 me, was writhing and reeling with the fitful gusts, 

 and straining at her cables like a chained wild beast. 

 The clouds of drifting snow which whirled through 

 the gorges beneath me, now and then hid her and 

 the icebergs beyond from view ; and when the air fell 

 calm again the cloud dropped upon the sea, and the 

 schooner, after a short interval of unrest, lay quietly 

 on the still water, nestling in sunshine under the pro- 

 tecting cliffs. 



There are yet some lingering traces of the sum- 

 mer. Some patches of green moss and grass were 

 seen in the valleys, where the snow had drifted away ; 

 and I plucked a little nosegay of my old friends the 

 poppies and the curling spider-legged Saxifraga flage- 

 laris. The frost and snow and wind had not robbed 

 them of their loveliness and beauty. The cliffs are 

 of the same sandstone, interstratified with green- 

 stone, which I have before remarked of the coast 

 below. 



McCormick has replaced the old foresail which 

 was split down the centre, with the new one, and has 

 patched up the mainsail and jib, both of which w^ere 

 much torn. 



An immense amount of ice has drifted past us, but 

 we are too far in-shore for any masses of considerable 



