fellow-passenger, who had maintained a sullen reserve
throughout the voyage, which ought to have placed me on my guard against
him, had attached himself to me during our troubles at the Custom-House,
and now joined with us all in loud rebuke of the sluggish motions and
rude behavior of the officers. He knew that I was a stranger, and with a
show of cordiality, for which I was very thankful, he invited me to
accompany him to a quiet, respectable hotel, where the charges were not
exorbitant. As his proposal suited my purse and my humor, I acquiesced
willingly enough, little suspecting into what hands I had fallen. In
less than an hour we were seated at a capital dinner, the best that I
ever remembered to have eaten, so exquisite is the relish imparted by a
keen appetite to the first meal one gets on shore after a long
sea-voyage.

We were wearied with the day's annoyances, and as the streets were very
uninviting, we sat smoking segars in the coffee-room of the
establishment. As one person after another dropped in, we heard of the
increase of the fog outside, and, indeed, it had long since entered and
filled the apartment till the outline of the waiter, as he moved to and
fro in supplying the wants of the company, became indistinct, and his
head, whenever he approached the chandelier, radiated a glory. As I had
often read of a London fog in November, I judged this to be an excellent
opportunity for seeing one, and accepted my companion's proposal to
repair to the door of the hotel. The scene was like nothing else I ever
had witnessed. At the distance of five yards the light of a gas-lamp was
invisible. We could not distinguish each other's features as we stood
side by side. Stages, cabs, and coaches were creeping forward at the
rate of twenty yards in a minute, the drivers carrying glaring torches,
and leading the horses by their bridles. Even at this pace the danger of
a collision was imminent. Pedestrians, homeward bound, were at their
wits' end. As they could not have proceeded fifty paces in security
without a torch, they were each provided with one, but some of them
contrived to lose their way notwithstanding, and seeing us on the steps
of the hotel, halted to make inquiries. One man assured us that he had
been half an hour looking for the next street. The better to convince
myself of the density of the mist, I extended my arm to its full length
and tried to count my fingers. From ocular evidence alone, I certainly
c