econnoitre,
and spent some hours with chart, compass, lead-line, and Pilot-book,
trying my best, to make out the currents, but all to no purpose except to
conclude that a voyage along this coast in bad weather would be madness,
unless with a man to help.

But nearly all this part of the French coast is awkward ground to be
caught in, especially where there are shifting or sinking sands, for if
the vessel touches these, the tide stream instantly sucks the sand from
under one side, while it piles it up on the other, and thus the hull is
gradually worked in with a ridge on such side, and cannot be slewed off,
but is liable to be wrecked forthwith. It was interesting to read here
the account of this coast given by my Pilot-book, which had at last been
dug out of its hiding-place. The reader need not peruse this official
statement, but to justify my remarks on the dangers it is given below in
a note. {52}

CHAPTER IV.

Thunder--In the squall--The dervish--Sailing consort--Poor little
boy!--Grateful presents--The dingey's mission--Remedy--Rise and work.

The aneroid barometer in my cabin pointed to "set fair" for many a day,
and just, too, when we required it most to be fine, that is along the
French coast. Had the Rob Roy encountered here the sort of weather she
met with afterwards on the south coast of England, we feel quite assured
she must have been wrecked ashore or driven out to sea for a miserable
time.

So it was best to keep moving on while fine weather lasted, for there was
no knowing when this might change, even with the wind as now in the good
N.E. The Pilot-book says, upon this (and pray listen to so good an
authority--my only one to consult with), "Gales from N. to N.E. are also
violent, but they usually last only from 24 to 36 hours, and the wind
does not shift as it does with those from the westward. They cause a
heavy sea on the flood stream, and during their continuance the French
coast is covered with a white fog, which has the appearance of smoke.
This is also the case with all easterly winds, which are sometimes of
long duration, and blow with great force."

In the evening, as a sort of practical comment on the text above, there
was sudden fall of the wind, and then a loud peal of thunder. Alert in a
moment, we noticed, far away in the offing, the fishing boats dip their
sails and reef them, so we knew there would soon be a blow, and we
resolved to reef, too, and just in time. My lif