LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



of Southern Fuegia, and finding anchorage under Noir 

 Island, but not the hoped-for shelter from either winds 

 or waves; the sea at the time dashing up the black cliffs 

 two and three hundred feet, and shrouding in foam the 

 high rocky islets, half obscured, that stood about us ; the 

 cables dragging and clanking over the bottom ; one break- 

 ing, then another, the storm still raging; finally, after 

 the third day, near midnight, the last of the four cables 

 giving way, amid a deluge of waters over the careering 

 vessel from the breakers astern, and an instant of waiting 

 among all on board for the final crash ; then, that instant 

 hardly passed, the loud, calm command of the captain, 

 the spring of the men to the yard-arms, and soon the ship 

 again on the dark, stormy sea, with labyrinths of islands, 

 and the Fuegian cliffs to leeward ; but, the wind losing 

 somewhat of its violence and slightly veering, the ship 

 making a bare escape as the morning dawned with brighter 

 skies. 



" And still another scene, more than two years later, 

 on a beautiful Sunday in the summer of 1841, when, 

 after a cruise of some months through the tropics, we 

 were in full expectation of soon landing joyously on the 

 shores of the Columbia; of the vessel suddenly striking 

 bottom ; then, other heavier blows on the fatal bar, and 

 a quivering and creaking among the timbers; the waters 

 rapidly gaining in spite of the pumps, through a long 

 night ; the morning come, our taking to the boats, empty- 

 handed, deserting the old craft that had been a home for 

 three eventful years, for ' Cape Disappointment ' a 

 name that tells of other vessels here deceived and 

 wrecked ; and, twenty hours later, the last vestige of the 

 ' old Peacock ' gone, her upper decks swept off by the 

 waves, the hulk buried in the sands. 



" But these were only incidents of a few hours in a 

 long and always delightful cruise." 



Survey of the Island World of the Pacific 



In another mood, but in a similar vein, Dana thus de- 

 scribes the characteristics of the island world to which the 

 eye of an explorer had been directed. The following 

 quotation is from Dana's Geology of the Pacific. 



94 



