162 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



deck. We had struck a rock forward, a little to star- 

 board of the stem, but the tide had fortunately swung 

 us round clear, and we were drifting on as if nothing 

 had happened. On sounding, we found we were 

 making water rapidly, faster than the pumps could 

 throw it out. True, we had the boats, and our danger 

 was trifling, but the security of the gallant craft was 

 imminent. Not a word of anger did the captain 

 permit to escape his lips, but accepted all as destiny. 

 Scarcely twenty minutes had we been in this uncertain 

 state when a gentle breeze sprang up and the fog 

 rapidly lifted, giving us an observation, and disclosing 

 a panorama never to be forgotten. Tier after tier of 

 sterile hills overtopped each other to the north, grand 

 in their bold and fantastic outline, while a white sandy 

 beach met the blue water, occasionally interrupted by 

 a reef of rocks jutting out into the azure element. 

 Not over a mile separated us from the shore, and pro- 

 jecting headlands shut us in from west and easterly 

 gales ; while a reef of rocks, the extremity of which 

 we had touched, formed a natural breakwater a mile 

 and a half to the eastward. If so disposed, with the 

 wind from its present direction, we should have found 

 it a difficult matter to beat out, and when the skipper 

 informed me that he intended running in and strand- 

 ing the vessel at the first high tide, I not only highly 



