150 VOYAGE OF THE SHIP PRESIDENT, 
voyage. The wind howled and roared amidst the riggingfj 
and it was impossible to listen to its terrific fury without a 
shudder of apprehension. The sea, too, was uncommonly 
high ; but the noble ship, as usual, rode the mountainous bil- 
lows with perfect ease. After the violent squalls, which pour- 
ed forth their appalling fury from about six till eight o'clock, 
accompanied by chilling and almost blinding showers of sleet 
and hail, there was a perceptible and most welcome lull in 
the wind, and a gradual subsiding of the sea. At six in the 
morning of 
Wednesday/, November 30, there was a decided change for 
the better, and at eight o'clock it proved a comparatively tran- 
quil morning, the wind moderate, and the sea very much gone 
down. 
During the past night a serious alarm was excited upon 
deck by the apparition of a ship bearing down upon us, nearly 
before the w^nd, in full sail, and so close that to avoid a con- 
tact seemed almost impossible. The second mate w^as in great 
terror, and had ordered the alarm-bell to be rung, and even 
the captain was startled, although scarcely persuaded that 
there were marks about this object correctly answering to the 
description of a ship The next impression w^as that it must 
be a water-spout, and conjecture immediately formed it into a 
cloud; but it turned out to be the captain's own shadow, re- 
flected to an immense magnitude by the lamps suspended 
from the roof of the cuddy, upon the thick and misty atmos- 
phere. The density of the air was much increased by the con- 
trast of its temperature with that of the water, which, from its 
contiguity to the Gulf-Stream, was now very warm, and the 
consequence was a vapor similar to steam, so thick as easily 
to take upon it such shadowy resemblances as had alarmed 
our crew. The feelings of all were undoubtedly more alive 
to such apprehensions from the accident we had witnessed in 
the early part of the day. 
Sunday, Becemher 4. — About 3 o'clock this morning the 
lights upon the highlands were discerned, and on rising the 
next morning Ave were presented with the cheerful and wel- 
come sight of land. . A long range of the Jersey shore, with 
the hills of Neversink beyond, were in full view ; but the wind 
was light and baffling, and our progress proportionably, I 
may say provokingly, slow. Now and then, however, a 
breeze sprang up, which bore us well onward toward Sandy 
Hook, and about mid-day its light-house was perfectly dis- 
cernible by the naked eye. About three o'clock we were 
L 
