SHALL WE GO NORTH? 
329 
severe cold and protracted winter in America has 
testified to the correctness of our surmise. 
It has been noticed also that when the wind in cer¬ 
tain years has prevailed in the opposite direction, the 
results have been fatal to the harvests of the Ice¬ 
landers. The state of the wind is therefore an object 
of the greatest solicitude to the inhabitants of that 
island. We are undecided then as to our next move. 
To go north has a kind of infatuation for us. We are 
quite unable to combat this inclination, and we are 
hardly willing to leave a coast so full of pleasurable 
recollections, though we cannot shut our eyes to the 
fact that the risk of being caught and sealed up in 
some little out-of-the-way inlet by the formation of 
some strong barrier of ice in our rear, may happen at 
this season when we least expect it, so sudden is the 
change of temperature. While we are deliberating, 
therefore, on what is best to be done, a rapid and 
quite unlooked-for change in the wind sets all our 
doubts at rest. A north wind gently fills our sails, and 
in the direction of home. At once our meditated 
plans are thrown aside, and the ship’s head is turned 
once again towards the south and England. At first 
the flutter of the breeze is hardly perceptible ; then its 
gentle influence is more clearly felt as the sails fill, and 
the schooner begins to feel its pressure; soon the 
