s which were
hanging along the bulwarks, and formed a fringe to the boats which were
hanging inside the ship; one poor passenger, with a splendid beard, told
us he found it quite hard and stiff, and we could have told him how much
we admired the icicles which were hanging to it. The thermometer,
however, was only at 15 deg., it being the wind that made it so intensely
cold. I did not get on deck, for, owing to the coating of ice, walking
on it became a service of some danger; and I did my best to keep Papa
from going up, though he often insisted on doing so, to enjoy the beauty
of the scene. The captain says that it is sometimes most trying to be on
this coast in winter, as the thermometer, instead of being 15 deg. above
zero as it was then, is often 15 deg. below, when the ropes and everything
become frozen. This cold lasted till Monday, when we were clear of "the
banks," and fairly launched into the wide Atlantic. The wind continued
to blow strongly from the north-west, with a considerable amount of sea,
which put an end to my even thinking of going on deck, but Papa
persevered, and every day passed many hours there, walking up and down
and enjoying it much, especially as it was daily getting warmer. I
wished much I could have accompanied him, but by this time I was
completely prostrated by sea-sickness.

The weather, though blowy, continued very fine till Tuesday at four
o'clock, when Papa came down and told me to prepare for a gale; an
ominous black cloud had shown itself in the north-west horizon; this
would not of itself have created much sensation, had it not been
accompanied by an extraordinary fall in the barometer; it had, in fact,
been falling for twenty-four hours, for at noon on Monday it stood
rather above 30, and at midnight was as low as 29.55, which, in these
latitudes, is a great fall. But on Tuesday, at nine A.M., it had fallen
to 28.80, when it began rapidly to sink, till at half-past three it
stood at 28.40, showing a fall of more than an inch and a half since the
preceding day at noon. It seems that this is almost unprecedented, so
that when the little black cloud appeared, every sail was taken in, and
the main topmast and fore top-gallantmast lowered down on deck, and this
was not done a bit too soon, for by half-past four, it blew a hurricane.
The captain told a naval officer on board, that he had thought of
putting the ship's head towards the gale, to let it blow past, but on
further considerati