APPROACH TO LIVERPOOL. 
391 
soon afterwards got clear of this dangerous and 
perplexing strait. 
Pursuing our course up the channel, we got 
sight of the Isle of Man, in the afternoon, and 
at 8 p. M., passed the Calf. On this rock or 
island (the Calf of Man) there are two excellent 
lights on the revolving principle, erected by 
Mr Robert Stevenson, that are remarkably well 
situated. These lights, when they appear in a 
line, mark the direction of a small rock, called the 
Chicken, which is the only danger in the way. 
As we had now a brisk breeze, in a favourable 
direction, there was a probability of our reaching 
our port in the course of the ensuing day. On 
this near approach to home, after an absence of 
almost six months, without receiving from our 
friends the least token of their welfare, and with¬ 
out the possibility, even of being reached by the 
excursive breath of rumour, there is an anxiety, 
respecting the fate of our nearest and dearest con¬ 
nections, in whose welfare our temporal happi¬ 
ness, in a considerable degree depends, which is 
of the most intense and awful description. This 
anxiety with myself, on this occasion, was such, 
as almost totally to suppress those joyous anticipa¬ 
tions, which, on their approach to home, after along 
absence, 1 find many persons around me, unre¬ 
servedly indulging. In the ordinary separation 
