THE EEL A. 309 



perfectly to understand what was wanted, for he raised 

 his head, turned round first in one direction, then in 

 another, and swam about anyhow, sniffing the air 

 vigorously, but evidently undecided. Then he turned 

 and swam back to the boat. Plainly he was as much 

 at fault as we were ; but his failure led us to the con- 

 clusion that probably we were a considerable distance 

 from land. Nothing for it but patience : so we lay 

 thus for many hours in enforced inactivity, except that 

 we knocked over a few cormorants that came sailing 

 past and looming in the thick mist like huge black 

 dragons. About noon a brisk breeze from the west 

 sprang up, the mist rose and was dispersed, and then 

 we discovered that the south tide had carried us to 

 the south-east, some four or five miles right to seaward. 

 At once we hoisted our sail and attempted to beat up 

 to the land, the wind being directly offshore. But 

 the tide was also against us, and we soon found we 

 could make no way to windward. Moreover, in a very 

 little the wind freshened and became too strong for 

 us to carry sail ; and we were equally unsuccessful with 

 the oars. Here was a pretty fix ! We were drifting 

 away out into the North Sea, the nearest land to leeward 

 being the coast of Norway. But it might have been 

 worse, for fortunately the sea was smooth, and we 

 philosophically came to the conclusion it would be a 

 senseless thing to exhaust our strength in manifestly 

 unavailing efi'orts. In this emergency I bethought me 

 of a device which I had often heard my father 

 recommend to the fishermen when they might find 



