6 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
hung glittering on the sky, like islands of precious stones; 
so brightly did they shine in the setting sun, and so com¬ 
pletely did the soft clouds around their bases seem to sepa¬ 
rate them from the world below ! 
The shores of Lower Oregon ! They rise so boldly from 
the sea ! Themselves mountains sparsely clad with lofty 
pines, spruce and cedar trees, nodding over the deep ! 
And then the ground under water! No flats, no mud- 
banks there. The cliffs are piled up from the bottom of the 
ocean ! The old Pacific, with his dark depths, lies within 
one hundred yards of them ! And the surges that run in 
from the fury of the tempests, roll with unbroken force to 
the towering rocks, and breaking with all their momentum 
at once, making the land tremble, and send far seaward a 
mighty chorus to the shouting storm ! 
The Pacific ! the Great South Sea ! It was heaving at our 
bows ! steadily, wave on wave came and went and follow 
ing each other in ceaseless march pressed onward ; like the 
world’s hosts in marshalled files, they hastened past us, as 
if intent to reach the solid shores, where some resistance 
would broach their hidden strength and pour their fury out! 
Behold, the sea ! Its troubled wastes are bending and top¬ 
pling with a wild, plashing, friendly sound ; a deep, blue, 
uncertain vastness ; itself cold and passive ; but under the 
lash of the tempest, full of terrific life ! Our ship stood 
staunch upon the palpitating mass, and seemed to love it. 
Mizen and mizen-top, main and main-top, fore and fore¬ 
topsails, and the lower weather studding-sails were out. The 
breeze from the land which had carried us over the bar still 
held, every thread of canvass drew, every cord was tight, and 
as we looked up through the rigging to the sky, the sails, 
cordage and masts swayed under the clouds like the roofing 
of some magic palace of olden tales. All hands were on 
deck; both watches sat about the windlass; while the second 
officer and mate looked at the horizon over the weather-bow, 
and pointed out a line of clouds crowding ominously up the 
