DANGERS ON NEARING HOME. 269 



haps, about his chronometer, that does not dread 

 to cross that fog-covered George's Bank, between 

 a Scylla on one side and a Charybdis on the 

 other, the George's Shoal on the right, and that 

 fatal Nantucket South Shoal on the left. 



We suddenly emerged from the warm water 

 of the Gulf Stream right into the mist and cold 

 of George's Bank, and a heavy north-east gale, 

 in which we had to lay- to during a most 

 tempestuous night, and were drifted a long way 

 to leeward, so as to be in no little danger, un- 

 certain as we needs must be of our whereabouts, 

 and our sails being so old and rotten that it 

 would have been impossible to beat off a lee 

 shore. (Another ship and two schooners were 

 wrecked upon the shoal in this same gale.) Two 

 days before we attained to. this position, there 

 were occasional glimpses of the sun, just 

 enough to give us doubtful observations, as his 

 disc could be caught behind the dense flying scud, 



" Dim through the horizontal misty air, 

 Shorn of his heams." 



But the clear blue sky had only once been 

 visible since getting out of the Gulf. It was ;i 



