CAPE CLEAR. GALE. 41 



CHAPTER IV. 



ON SOUNDINGS. ENGLISH SMALL CRAFT. HARBOUR OF LIVERPOOL. 



Sunday, May Zoih. 



AT sunset yestesday the mate went to the royal yard to 

 look for land, but could not see it. By our reckoning we 

 were off Mizzen Head, a point to the westward of Cape Clear, 

 steering east by south, fresh wind and rising, going nine 

 knots, thick weather and rain. Several gannets (a kind of 

 goose with white body and black wings) were about us. 

 Some one said they would probably go to land to spend the 

 night, and there was pleasure in being so made to realize our 

 vicinity to it. Several vessels were in sight, all running inside 

 us, and steering northeast. We thought our captain over 

 anxious to give Cape Clear a wide berth, and were very sorry 

 not to make the land before dark. After sunset it grew 

 thicker, and the wind, which had been increasing all day, by 

 midnight was a gale. He got all sail in but the reefed top 

 sails ; then hove-to, and found bottom in fifty-five fathoms. 

 I was quite satisfied now with the captain s prudence ; the 

 sea was running high, and the cliffs of Ireland could not be 

 many miles distant. As it was, I felt perfectly safe, and 

 turned in, sleeping soundly till nine o clock this morning. 

 About an hour later they made the light on the old Head of 

 Kinsale, where the Albion was lost some thirty years since. 

 The captain says we passed within ten miles of Cape Clear 

 light without seeing it. He was just right in his reckoning, 



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