124 NIGHT SCENE FROM THE WRECK. 



under the weather-bulwarks, as a protection from 

 the spray which every now and then flew over us. 

 The wind was blowing strongly, drifting a few dark 

 clouds occasionally over the star-lit sky, and howling 

 round the wreck with a shrill tone that made itself 

 heard above the dull continuous roar of the surf. 

 Just ahead of us was the broad white band of foam 

 which stretched away on either hand into the dark 

 horizon. Now and then some higher wave than 

 usual would burst against the bows of the wreck, 

 shaking all her timbers, sending a spout of spray 

 over the forecastle, and travelling along her sides 

 would lash the rudder backwards and forwards 

 with a slow creaking groan, as if the old ship com- 

 plained of the protracted agony she endured. 



She had been wrecked since we had ourselves 

 left home, and entered the southern hemisphere, 

 and there mingled perhaps some speculations as to 

 our chance of leaving the old Fly in some similar 

 situation with the highly-wrought feelings which 

 the mere character and aspect of the scene sufficed 

 to impress upon the mind. The place was so far 

 removed from the regions of civilized life, and so 

 far even from any dry land at all ; the reef, also, 

 on which we stood, was one of nature's mysteries, 

 its origin equally wonderful and obscure, its extent 

 so vast, and its accompaniments so simple, so grand, 

 and appropriate ; — altogether, I shall not easily 

 forget my night- walk on the weather-beaten poop 

 of the wreck of the Martha Ridgway. 



