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thirty feet, in high latitudes and narrow waters. Stimson now showed he
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was a man to be relied on. Conning the craft intelligently, he took her in
behind the island on which the cape stands, luffed her up into a tiny
cove, and made a cast of the lead. There were fifty fathoms of water, with
a bottom of mud. With the certainty that there was enough of the element
to keep him clear of the ground at low water, and that his anchors would
hold, Roswell made a flying moor, and veered out enough cable to render
his vessel secure.
Here, then, was the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond, that craft which the reader
had seen lying at Deacon Pratt's wharf, only three short months before,
safely anchored in a nook of the rocks behind Cape Horn. No navigator but
a sealer would have dreamed of carrying his vessel into such a place, but
it is a part of their calling to poke about in channels and passages where
no one else has ever been. It was in this way that Stimson had learned to
know where to find his present anchorage. The berth of the schooner was
perfectly snug, and entirely land-locked. The tremendous swell that was
rolling in on the outside, caused the waters to rise and fall a little
within the passage, but there was no strain upon the cables in
consequence. Neither did the rapid tides affect the craft, which lay in an
eddy that merely kept her steady. The gale came howling over the Hermits,
but was so much broken by the rocks as to do little more than whistle
through the cordage and spars aloft.
Three days, and as many nights, did the gale from the south-west continue.
The fourth day there was a change, the wind coming from the eastward.
Roswell would now have gone out, had it not been for the apprehension of
falling in with Daggett again. Having at length gotten rid of that
pertinacious companion, it would have been an act of great weakness to
throw himself blindly in his way once more. It was possible that Daggett
might not suppose he had been left intentionally, in which case, he would
be very apt to look for his lost consort in the vicinity of the cape. As
for the gale, it might, or it might not, have blown him to leeward. A good
deal would depend on the currents, and his distance to the southward. Near
the land, Gardiner believed the currents favoured a vessel doubling it,
going west; and if Daggett was also aware of this fact, it might induce
him to keep as near the spot as possible.
Time was very precious to our sealers, the season being so short in the
high latitudes. Still, they were a little in advance of their
calculations, having got off the Horn fully ten days sooner than they had
hoped to be there. Nearly the whole summer was before them, and there was
the possibility of their even being too soon for the loosening of the ice
further south. The wind was the strongest inducement to go out, for the
point to which our adventurers were bound lay a considerable distance to
the westward, and fair breezes were not to be neglected. Under all the
circumstances, however, it was decided to remain within the passage one
day longer, and this so much the more, because Hazard had discovered some
signs of sea-elephants frequenting an island at no great distance. The
boats were lowered accordingly, and the mate went in one direction, while
the master pulled up to the rocks, and landed on the Hermit, or the island
which should bear that name, _par excellence,_ being that in which the
group terminates.
Taking Stimson with him, to carry a glass, and armed with an old lance as
a pike-pole, to aid his efforts, Roswell Gardiner now commenced the ascent
of the pyramid already mentioned. It was ragged, and offered a thousand
obstacles, but none that vigour and resolution could not overcome After a
few minutes of violent exertion, and by helping each other in difficult
places, both Roswell and Stimson succeeded in placing themselves on the
summit of the elevation, which was an irregular peak. The height was
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considerable, and gave an extended view of the adjacent islands, as well
as of the gloomy and menacing ocean to the southward. The earth, probably,
does not contain a more remarkable sentinel than this pyramid on which our
hero had now taken his station. There it stood, actually the Ultima Thule
of this vast continent, or, what was much the same, so closely united to
it as to seem a part of our own moiety of the globe, looking out on the
broad expanse of waters. The eye saw, to the right, the Pacific; in front
was the Southern, or Antarctic Ocean; and to the left was the great [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]