

18973 Cape Cheerful 



Having passed a monotonous week, we were 

 much relieved to enter the shelter of Unalaska 

 Island, the first landmark of which is the tall cas- 

 cade of Cape Cheerful. This encouraging name Poetic 

 suggested a bit of verse for the absent children, and 

 as introduction I wrote an imaginary extract from 

 Cook's log-book of 1778: 



CAPE CHEERFUL 



"When you shall come to a great cliff standing northward 

 from Makushin the Volcano, and rent almost from base to 

 summit and from the midst of which leaps the tumultuous 

 Waterfall sheer into the Sea, then, the fog lifting, you will 

 leave the cliff well to Starboard, and enter a land-locked haven 

 called * Captain's Harbor/ for that I did once ride out the winter 

 there. Whence is this Headland with the Waterfall called 'Cape 

 Cheerful/" 



Homeward bound from the Storm-Islands, through the sullen 

 Icy Sea, 



On our lee 

 Rise the savage, swart Smoke-Islands, which defy 



Sea and Sky, 



Hurling back the waves insistent from their boulder-cumbered 

 shore, 



Evermore; 



As though shattering the cloud-rack, dark and tall, 



Like a wall, 

 And the twin Smoke-Islands vanish as a specter of the night 



From our sight, 

 While the ship still plunges onward, fog-bound in the Icy Sea. 



Suddenly, 



As the light is slowly failing, the long twilight of the North, 



Rises forth, 

 As though shattering the cloud-rack, dark and tall, 



The granite wall 



Of the shapeless huge Moss-Island with her earthquake-riven 

 cliff; 



Through the rift, 



C 595 3 



