CHAPTER IV. 



ANXIOUS as we were to get on, the wind remained 

 provokingly light ; never freshening, but just sufficient to 

 allow of our making a trifling headway against the current. 

 This continued until next morning, when it fell a dead calm 

 which lasted until the afternoon. All at once a stiff 

 northerly breeze sprung up, of which we took full advantage, 

 beating up as carefully as if we were sailing a race. 

 Steadily, but surely, we made up for lost time, and by nine 

 o'clock were nearly abreast of Cape Noshap ; another hour 

 would have seen us round this point and out of the current, 

 but it was not to be, for, as usual, the wind died away, and 

 as it was too deep to anchor, in that hour which should have 

 given us a snug berth for the night, so strong was the 

 current, we had drifted back, over the space that had taken 

 us six hours to beat up, to the place whence we had started 

 when the wind met us, and there was no alternative but to 

 anchor till morning. 



Cape Noshap, which stood out temptingly before us in the 

 bright moonlight, is the extreme east point of the Island of 

 Yesso, and terminates a long and comparatively low-lying 

 peninsula, about the middle of which, but on the western 

 shore, is the harbour of Nemoro, a mere indentation on the 

 coast protected by a small rocky island. The Cape itself 

 was stated in the chart to be furnished with a " flash-light " 

 seventy-four feet high, visible at a distance of six miles. 

 We were, accordingly, much surprised that although within 

 that radius, a good glass was required to see it at all, and 

 certainly there was no flash about it ; in fact, to judge by 

 its hazy appearance on a calm and cold night, it was nothing 



