STEAMER OUT IN HER RECKONING. 21 



laying in a supply of cold-repelling fluids, etc., 1 

 sent the yacht round to Leith, while I traveled 

 north by land, as I am not the least ashamed to 

 confess that I have a strong preference for land- 

 traveling when it is practicable. 



On May 31st the yacht arrived in Leith Roads, 

 but a violent gale of east wind prevented us from 

 sailing for several days; however, we got under 

 way at daylight on the 6th of June ; but the day 

 being calm, we were only off the village of Elie, at 

 the mouth of the Firth of Forth, at seven in the 

 evening, so I landed to pay a visit to some rela- 

 tions living there whom I had not seen for several 

 years, and to procure some small stores which the 

 steward had forgotten, and which he declared were 

 "indispensable." 



On the 8th, during a dense fog, we were off Ab- 

 erdeen by our dead-reckoning, and were nearly run 

 down by a tug steamer, from the deck of which a 

 voice hailed in a strong Northumbrian dialect, re- 

 questing to know "how far they might be from 

 Shields." I never saw any people look more sur- 

 prised than they did on being told "about 240 

 miles," as they had lost their way in the fog for 

 two or three days, and imagined themselves to be 

 still only a few miles from the mouth of the Tyne. 



We beat through the middle of the Orkney Isl- 

 ands on the 9th, and on the 11th, finding the wind 

 still desperately ahead, with a heavy sea, we thought 

 it would entail no great loss of time to put into 



