80 VIEW FEOM THE CLIFFS. 



had reached the summit of the cliff I was almost 

 blown over it. The force of the wind 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 r one, and has 

 patched up the mainsail and jib, both of which were 

 much torn. 



An immense amount of ice has drifted past us, but 

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



