A PEETTY SUPERSTITION. 301 



water, as if resting from the fatigue caused by the war of 

 the elements, and adding beauty to the picture by their 

 pure white, spotless plumage. I remember hearing an old 

 salt in answer to the question of why sea-fowl, in bad 

 weather, so much more fearlessly approach vessels than 

 when it is calm, give the following solution : " Well, you 

 see, those good folks who die don't go to Davie Jones, but 

 turn into Cape pigeons and kittiwakes, and them kind of 

 birds, and when they think it's rough and kind of 

 dangerous, they naturally like to hover about their friends 

 to protect them." If angels visit earth in these modern 

 and wicked times, there are many garbs they could assume 

 less beautiful and less suitable than that of the snowy- white 

 sea-gull. 



At breakfast our captain expressed much satisfaction at 

 the bad weather having passed, and particularly at its being 

 so unusually calm, for he much feared, what with the usual 

 incorrectness of dead reckoning and strong tides which 

 exist to a greater extent here than probably in any other 

 portion of the globe that he was some way off his course. 

 On taking soundings, the depth indicated by the lead-line 

 and the composition of the bottom so completely differed 

 from what we expected, that there scarcely remained a 

 doubt that we were astray ; still we were drifting very 

 rapidly to the north-west, the fog, if anything, growing 

 denser. About eleven, our captain having given the look- 

 out strict injunctions to keep his eyes open while he again 

 went below to examine his chart, I followed suit. I could 

 scarcely have been in the cabin over five minutes when the 

 schooner received a severe shock, which caused me to rush 



