138 GRAND BUT TERRIBLE SCENE. 



themselves, while on the southeast a low, receding cliff receives 

 the force of the waves in this direction. Just beyond the house is 

 a small sandy depression called salt-water pond, since it is filled 

 with salt water at high tide only. All these peculiarities of the 

 locality are seen at a glance from the front doorstep, and the porch 

 itself is only a few rods from highest tide marks. In this out-of- 

 the-world region, this bleak, cold, desolate Labrador, over a thou- 

 sand miles from home, I am spending the winter. On this morn- 

 ing, in this terrible weather, while still uncertain as to that which 

 may follow, I stand and gaze upon a Labrador hurricane. On this 

 little island I am far enough from land to get all the benefits of the 

 raging ocean, to see its whirlpools and billows, and watch its 

 majestic, towering columns of water as they rise and break in all 

 possible shapes to the right, the left, and in front of me. It is, 

 however, sufficient ; I shall remember the sight for the rest of my 

 life. While I cannot do justice to the scene I can only add my 

 own feeble expressions of the terrific violence and the awful grand- 

 eur of this day's scene as it stands pictured on my mind. The whole 

 sea in commotion, actually stirred to its very depths, and break- 

 ing into foaming masses, in places where in calm the depth 

 was thirty and even forty feet ; and you could even see the water 

 black with mud from the clayey bottom, of frequent occurrence here. 

 From a short distance seaward, a long line of undulating wave 

 quickly forms, increasing till its crest is a sheet of foam, while 

 the wave itself breaks up into smaller masses some of which sink 

 into the waters below, and forming sort of pits or whirlpools are 

 lost in a well-like abyss, while others raise themselves again high in 

 the air and shower forth spray like the jets of a Parisian fountain. 

 Each successive wave thus turns and twists itself into the utmost 

 variety of forms and shapes, while wave succeeds wave with the 

 greatest rapidity. 



The narrow islets in the distance beyond are but playthings for 

 the waves, and huge billows roll completely over the lower ones, 

 while white spray tosses itself from one side to the other of the higher 

 yet still low crests. It seemed as if the waves on either side of these 



