Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1832-01-18

brig rising and riding OH The summit win the
buoyancy and grace Of a bird.
The single view Of the ocean which l got at
that moment, will be impressed upon my 'nind
forever. Nothing that ever saw on land at all
compares with it for spiendor. No sunset, no
lake scene Of hill and water. no fall, not even
Niagara, no glen or mountain gap ever approach
ed il. The waves had had 10 time to "RnocK
down" as the sailors phrase it, and It was
storm at sea without the hurricane and ram. 1
looked off to the horizon, and the long majestic
swels were heaving INTO the sky upon Its distant
limit, and between II and my eye lay radius OF
taeve miles, an immense plain flashing with
green and blue and white, and changing place
aud color SO rapidly as to be almost painful to
the sight. stood holding by the taffrail all hour,
gazing ON it with childish deiis hit and wonder
The spray had broken me repeatedly, and as
we shipped half sea at the scuppers at every
roll, was standing half the time up to the knees
in water; but the warm wind on my forehead, at
ter weeks confinement 20 my berth, and the
excessive beauty lavished upon my sight were so
delicious, that forgot all, and it was only in
compliance with the captains repeated sugges-
ton tina, changed my position.
mounted the quarter deck, and pulling of
my shoes, like schoo-boy, sat over the rails.
and with my feet dripping into the warm sea at
every lurch, gaZed at the glorious show tor hours
do not hesitate to say that the formation, pro-
gress, and final burst of a sea-wave, IN bright
sun, is the most gorgeously beautiful sieht I'M
der heaven. | must describe il like jeweer.
to you, or | can never convey my impressions.
First of all, quarter of mile away to wind
ward your eye is caught by an unoommoniy high
wave, rushing right upon your track, and heap
ing up slowly and constantly as 1t comes, as
il some huge animal were poughing his path
steadily and powerfully beneath the surface. -
Its sground," as a painter would say, Is OF
deep indigo. clear and smooth as enamel, its
front curved inward, like smell. and turned over
at the summit with crest OF foam, flashing and
changing perpetually IN the sunshine. like the
sudden out.burst Of million of "unsunn'd dia-
monds." and right through its bosom. as the sea
falls off or the angle of refraction changes, there
runs shifting band Of the most vivid green, that
YOU would take to have been the cestus of Venus
as she rose from the sea. il is so systematically
translucent and beautiful. As it nears You, it
looks in shape like the prov of Cleopatras barge,
as they paint it in the old pictures; but its coors,
and the grace and majesty of its march, aud its
murmur, dix. thu low tones of an organ, deep
and full, and. b. nv ear, ten times as artlculate
and soemn) almost startle you into the belief
that it is sen'ient being, risen glorious and
breathing from the ocean. As it reaches the
ship, she rises gradually. for there is apparently
an under wave driven before 1t, which prepares
her for its power; and as it touches the quarter,
the whole magnificent wall breaks down beneath
YOU with a deafening surge, and volume of foam
issues from its bosom, green and blue AID white.
as if it had been mighty caske, in which the
whole wealth of the sea, crysoprase. and eme-
raid. and brilliant spars had been heaped and la.
wished At IL, ~. This IS the '.enth wave"
and. for four Or five minutes. thu sea will be
smooth about You, and the sparkling and diving
foam falls into tie wake. and may be seen like
white path, stretching away over the swels be-
hind, till you tired of gazing at IT, Then
comes another from the same direction, and with
the same shape and motion, and so on till the sun
sets, or your eyes are blinded and your brains
giddy with splendor.
| am sure this language will seem exaggerated
to you. but, upon the faith of lonely man. (the
captain has turned in, and il is near midnight
and dead calm,l it is mere skeleton, gold
smith's inventory of the reality. long ago
learned that first lesson Of man Of the world,
8. to be a,tonshed at nothing:" but the sea has
overreached my philosophy am chang
ed to mere child, in nv wonder Be assured
no view of the ocean from land can give ysu a
shadow of an idea of it. Within even the outer
most Capes, the swell is broken. and the color of
the water in sounding is essentially different
more dull and earthly. Go 10 the mineral cabi-
nets of Cambridge or New Maven, and look at
f,tor spnrs and the tusquoiseS. and the clearer
specimens Of crysoprase and quartz and diamond,
and imagine them all polished and clear. and
flung at YOUR feet by millions in noon day sun,
and it may help your conceptions of the sea after
a storm. You may 'swim on bladders" at Ma
hant and Roekaway TIL you are gray, and be ne.
The :" middle watch" isealed, and the Sc
cond mate, fine rough old sailor, promoted from
{" the mast" is walking the quarter deck. stop
ping his whistle now and then with gruf. show
do you ahead?" or keep her up. you Iubber,"
to the man at the helm; the " silver shell" of
waning moon, is just visible through the dead
lights over my shoulder, lit has been up two
hours, to me. and by the difference o! our pre-
sent meridians, is just rising now over certain
hill, and peeping softly in at an eastern window
that have watched many time when its panes
have been sIvered by the same chaste alchymv)