The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 168: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE, STEAM PACKET, | (125 The scene surveyed from the deck was grand and awe-inspiring. About five or six miles to leeward was the coast of France, low, brown in hue, and barren in appearance ; to windward the sea stretched far as the eye could reach, bounded only by the horizon. The sky above was as dark and gloomy as it well could be; and the clouds flew rapidly upon the wings of the blast. The ocean itself seemed to be lashing in its fury from the very caverns which contain its secret springs ; and the crests of the billows, as they rolled onwards, break- ing often one over the other, appeared to commingle together in one vast whirlpool of foam. Sometimes the wind murmured through the hollow of the waves with force so suppressed, that it seemed as if its violence were about to lull altogether ;—then the ominous sharp and shrill whistling reverberated through the air, as the vessel rose upon the summit of the billows;—and these sounds were followed by a rumbling and monotonous din, resembling that of distant cannon fired rapidly one after the other for some moments. At times the moan of the tempest appeared to speak in human voices, as if the abysses of the sea sent forth the wail of mortal agony. | ‘‘Steady, my boy—steady as she goes!” cried the captain to the helmsman every now and then, when conning the ship, he notified that it must be kept as then steering. | | ‘< Here ’s a sneezer, sir, a-coming,” was the observation occasionally made by the mate to the captain: ‘‘he’s bearin’ down on us with a cauliflower head. My eyes! if he ain’t a reglar snorter.” : “This is no jolly-boat breeze, any how,,Tom,” said the captain, when the menacing billow was past. _.©T shouldn’t a-thought the breeze 0’ this mornin’ would ha’ blown sich great guns on the barky, sir,” observed the mate; *“‘ but we'll get into Gravelines, please God, presently, and ride in smooth water like a duck-all-atanto, and as light as a cape petrel.” At this moment one of the few Luminaries who had stayed upon deck crawled along towards the spot where the captain and mate were standing, and begged, in a whining tone of utter desolation, to be in- formed whether there was any “‘ real danger or not? ”’ «s Real danger!” ejaculated the mate, with a glance of deep indig- nation :—‘‘ Real danger!) Who the devil ever heerd o’ sham danger ? You'd better belay your jaw-tackling, sir, and go down below along with t’others.”’ The unfortunate Luminary accepted the advice, and im his endea- your to follow it was precipitated down the companion-ladder, to the great damage of the exterior case of his olfactory apparatus. | - There is nothing that combines so essentially profound thought with Eomicbooks (E(0)