OUR SCHOONER. 
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naturally not quite certain of our whereabouts; but 
our distance run was carefully taken, and, true to 
our reckoning, we sighted the land a little to wind¬ 
ward. We could now watch the terrible sea driving 
with stupendous force against the rocks, and we haul 
to the wind confident in the prowess of our little 
schooner. She is one of the best sea boats we have 
ever sailed in. There are few vessels afloat that 
would venture to weather that storm-tossed shore 
under the circumstances—a lee shore, a sea running, 
and a whole gale blowing at the time. It was 
an awfully grand spectacle, and we were right glad 
when every difficulty of approaching the harbour was 
at length overcome, and we once more dropped anchor 
in Lerwick Harbour. There, that portion of the crew 
whose services we had secured from the Shetlands left 
us, and we watched, with profound interest, the hearty 
welcome, if the term can convey with it the meaning it 
ought to serve, of their glad wives and children at the 
return of the long absent relatives to their homes. On 
Monday we again put out into the gale, which had 
abated nothing of its fury during our short pause, and 
once more under its driving influence we sped along 
the pitching sea. Here it was we fell in with many 
vessels all hove to, none daring to run with us. We 
see the great advantage of the broad stern of the 
