land and the narrow beach-line, the coast became more wall-like, and
dark masses of porphyritic rock abutted into the sea. With growing
difficulty, he managed to climb from rock to rock, in hopes of doubling
the promontory and sighting the coasts beyond, but the water kept
encroaching more and more on his track.

It must have been an imposing sight, as he stood at this termination of
his journey, looking out upon the great waste of waters before him. Not
a "speck of ice," to use his own words, could be seen. There, from a
height of four hundred and eighty feet, which commanded a horizon of
almost forty miles, his ears were gladdened with the novel music of
dashing waves; and a surf, breaking in among the rocks at his feet,
stayed his farther progress.

Beyond this cape all is surmise. The high ridges to the north-west
dwindled off into low blue knobs, which blended finally with the air.
Morton called the cape, which baffled his labors, after his commander;
but I have given it the more enduring name of Cape Constitution.

... I am reluctant to close my notice of this discovery of an open sea
without adding that the details of Mr. Morton's narrative harmonized
with the observations of all our party. I do not propose to discuss here
the causes or conditions of this phenomenon. How far it may
extend--whether it exist simply as a feature of the immediate region, or
as part of a great and unexplored area communicating with the Polar
basin, and what may be the argument in favor of one or the other
hypothesis, or the explanation which reconciles it with established
laws--may be questions for men skilled in scientific deductions. Mine
has been the more humble duty of recording what we saw. Coming as it
did, a mysterious fluidity in the midst of vast plains of solid ice, it
was well calculated to arouse emotions of the highest order; and I do
not believe there was a man among us who did not long for the means of
embarking upon its bright and lonely waters.

[Footnote 68: A traveller, explorer, and writer of high merit; a native
of Philadelphia, and a Surgeon in the Navy. His early death was much
deplored.]

* * * * *

=_Bayard Taylor, 1825-._= (Manual, pp. 505, 523, 531.)

From "Eldorado."

=_273._= MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA.

No one can be in Monterey a single night, without being startled and
awed by the deep, solemn crashes of the surf, as it breaks along the
shore. There is no continuous