as
a weapon of defence but as a leaping-staff, set out to climb as high up
the central acclivity of the island as circumstances would allow him to
go. He was deceived in the distances, however, and soon found that an
entire day would be necessary to achieve such an enterprise, could it be
performed at all; but he did succeed in reaching a low spur of the central
mountain that commanded a wide and noble view of all that lay to the north
and east of it. From this height, which must have been a few hundred feet
above the level of the ocean, our adventurers got a still better view of
the whole north coast, or of what might have been called the sealing
quarter of the island. They also got a tolerably accurate idea of the
general formation of that lone fragment of rock and earth, as well as of
the islets and islands that lay in its vicinity. The outline of the first
was that of a rude, and of course an irregular triangle, the three
principal points of which were the two low capes already mentioned, and a
third that lay to the northward and westward. The whole of the western or
south-western shore seemed to be a nearly perpendicular wall of rock,
that, in the main, rose some two or three hundred feet above the ocean.
Against this side of the island in particular, the waves of the ocean were
sullenly beating, while the ice drove up 'home,' as sailors express it;
showing a vast depth of water. On the two other sides, it was different.
The winds prevailed most from the south-west, which rendered the
perpendicular face of the island its weather-wall; while the two other
sides of the triangle were more favoured by position. The north side, of
course, lay most exposed to the sun, everything of this nature being
reversed in the southern hemisphere from what we have it in the northern;
while the eastern or north-eastern side, to be precisely accurate, was
protected by the group of islands that lay in its front. Such was the
general character of Sealer's Land, so far as the hurried observations of
its present master enabled him to ascertain. The near approach of night
induced him now to hasten to get off of the somewhat dangerous acclivities
to which he had climbed, and to rejoin his people and his schooner.

Chapter XV.

"Ye dart upon the deep, and straight is heard
A wilder roar; and men grow pale, and pray:
Ye fling its waters round you, as a bird
Flings o'er his shivering plumes the fountain's spray.
See! to t