334 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
Nevertheless, I confess I was very uneasy. Though 
1 went to bed and fell asleep—for at sea nothing 
prevents that process—my slumbers were constantly 
agitated by the most vivid dreams that I ever re¬ 
member to have had. Dreams of an arrival in 
England, and your coming down to meet us, and all 
the pleasure I had in recounting our adventures to 
you; then suddenly your face seemed to fade away 
beneath a veil of angry grey surge that broke over 
low sharp-pointed rocks; and the next moment there 
resounded over the ship that cry which has been the 
preface to so many a disaster—the ring of which, 
none who have ever heard it are likely to forget— 
“ Breakers ahead! ” 
In a moment I was on deck, dressed—for it is 
always best to dress,—and there sure enough, right 
ahead, about a mile-and-a-half off, through the mist— 
which had come on very thick—I could distinguish the 
upward shooting fluff of seas shattering against rocks. 
No land was to be seen, but the line of breakers every 
instant became more evident; at the pace we were 
going, in seven or eight minutes we should be upon 
them. Now, thought I to myself, we shall see whether 
