THE BEACH AGAIN. 
115 
these vessels to and fro, break them in pieces in its 
sandy or stony jaws, and deliver their crews to sea- 
monsters. It will play with them like sea-weed, distend 
them like dead frogs, and carry them about, now high, 
now low, to show to the fishes, giving them a nibble. 
This gentle Ocean will toss and tear the rag of a man's 
body like the father of mad bulls, and his relatives may 
be seen seeking the remnants for weeks along the strand. 
From some quiet inland hamlet they have rushed weep¬ 
ing to the unheard-of shore, and now stand uncertain 
where a sailor has recently been buried amid the sand¬ 
hills. 
It is generally supposed that they who have long been 
conversant with the Ocean can foretell, by certain indi¬ 
cations, such as its roar and the notes of sea-fowl, 
when it will change from calm to storm; but probably 
no such ancient mariner as we dream of exists; they 
knov/ no more, at least, than the older sailors do about 
this voyage of life on which we are all embarked. Nev¬ 
ertheless, we love to hear the sayings of old sailors, and 
their accounts of natural phenomena, which totally ignore, 
and are ignored by, science; and possibly they have not 
always looked over the gunwale so long in vain. Kalm 
repeats a story which was told him in Philadelphia by a 
Mr. Cock, who was one day sailing to the West Indies 
in a small yacht, with an old man on board wdio was well 
acquainted with those seas. The old man sounding the 
depth, called to the mate to tell Mr. Cock to launch the 
boats immediately, and to put a sufficient number of men 
into them, in order to tow the yacht during the calm, 
that they might reach the island before them as soon as 
possible, as within twenty-four hours there would be a 
strong hurricane. Mr. Cock asked him what reasont he 
