July, 1857. ORKNEYS AND GREENLAND. 15 



pected that she ran aground upon the bar. She 

 was promptly shored up, and remained in that 

 position until next morning, when she floated 

 off unhurt at high water, and commenced her 

 long and lonely voyage. 



Scarcely had we left the busy world behind 

 us when we were actively engaged in making 

 arrangements for present comfort and future 

 exertion. How busy, how happy, and how full 

 of hope we all were then ! 



On the night of the 2nd of July we passed 

 through the Pentland Firth, where the tide 

 rushing impetuously against a strong wind 

 raised up a tremendous sea, amid which the 

 little vessel struggled bravely under steam and 

 canvas. The bleak wild shores of Orkney, the 

 still wilder pilot's crew, and their hoarse screams 

 and unintelligible dialect, the shrill cry of in- 

 numerable sea-birds, the howling breeze and 

 angry sea, made us feel as if we had suddenly 

 awoke in Greenland itself. The southern ex- 

 tremity of that ice-locked continent became 

 visible on the 12th. It is quaintly named Cape 

 Farewell; but whether by some sanguine out- 

 ward-bound adventurer who fancied that in 

 leaving Grreenland behind him he had already 

 secured his passage to Cathay ; or whether by 

 the wearied homesick mariner, feebly escaping 



