t in little more than one month
most of them would be discharging in Melbourne, Sydney, Calcutta, or
some other equally distant port, while we should probably be dodging
about in our present latitude a little farther east.

After a few days of our present furious rate of speed, I came on deck
one morning, and instantly recognized an old acquaintance. Right ahead,
looking nearer than I had ever seen it before, rose the towering mass of
Tristan d'Acunha, while farther away, but still visible, lay Nightingale
and Inaccessible Islands. Their aspect was familiar, for I had sighted
them on nearly every voyage I had made round the Cape, but I had never
seen them so near as this. There was a good deal of excitement among
us, and no wonder. Such a break in the monotony of our lives as we were
about to have was enough to turn our heads. Afterwards, we learned to
view these matters in a more philosophic light; but now, being new and
galled by the yoke, it was a different thing. Near as the island seemed,
it was six hours before we got near enough to distinguish objects on
shore. I have seen the top of Tristan peeping through a cloud nearly
a hundred miles away, for its height is tremendous. St. Helena looks
a towering, scowling mass when you approach it closely but Tristan
d'Acunha is far more imposing, its savage-looking cliffs seeming to
sternly forbid the venturesome voyager any nearer familiarity with their
frowning fastnesses. Long before we came within working distance of the
settlement, we were continually passing broad patches of kelp (FUCUS
GIGANTEA), whose great leaves and cable-laid stems made quite reef-like
breaks in the heaving waste of restless sea. Very different indeed were
these patches of marine growth from the elegant wreaths of the Gulf-weed
with which parts of the North Atlantic are so thickly covered. Their
colour was deep brown, almost black is some cases, and the size of many
of the leaves amazing, being four to five feet long, by a foot wide,
with stalks as thick as one's arm. They have their origin around these
storm-beaten rocks, which lie scattered thinly over the immense area of
the Southern Ocean, whence they are torn, in masses like those we saw,
by every gale, and sent wandering round the world.

When we arrived within about three miles of the landing-place, we saw
a boat coming off, so we immediately hove-to and awaited her arrival.
There was no question of anchoring; indeed, there seldom is in th