10 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
looking cock under his arm, with regard to whose 
qualifications its late proprietor had volunteered the most 
satisfactory assurances. I am also bound to mention, 
that protruding from his coat-pocket were certain sheets 
of music, with the name of Alice, Louisa, written 
thereon in a remarkably pretty Hand, which led me 
to believe that the Doctor had not entirely confined 
his energies to the acquisition of hens and vegetables. 
The rest of the day was spent in packing away our 
newly purchased stores, and making the ship as tidy 
as circumstances would admit. I am afraid, however, 
many a smart yachtsman would have been scandalized 
at our decks, lumbered up with hen-coops, sacks of 
coal, and other necessaries', which, like the Queen of 
Spain’s legs, not only ought never to be seen, but 
must not be supposed even to exist, on board a tip-top 
craft. 
By the evening, the gale, which had been blow¬ 
ing all day, had increased to a perfect hurricane. 
At nine o’clock we let go a second anchor; and I 
confess, as we sat comfortably round the fire in the 
bright cheerful little cabin, and listened to the wind 
whistling and shrieking through the cordage, that none 
