Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1851-10-29
For the Grand River Times by &c. CT"
AN ADVENTURE ON LAKE MICHIGAN.

TELL THE TALE AS TWAS TOLD TO ME-"
It was one of those beautiful days toward
the last of November, when autumn casts up
on us her last sad smile, reminding us at once
of the gladstone season of her first arrival and
of the dark and dreary winter so soon to sue
coed. The air was mild, the south wind rustled
gently among the withered leaves, and the lake
glimmered dimly beneath the haze-hidden sun,
and tempted US to try once more its tickle sur
face before the storms and ice of the approach
ing winter should debar US from this most ex-
citing and agreeable of amusements. Having
little business which called me few miles
down the lake, and which would otherwise de-
mand lonesome and tedious journey, on horse
back, accordingly, embarked with two in
vited companions, on board the "Sea Gull; )"
and after beating rapidly down the river, We
were soon bobbing merrily over the small swels
that were dancing upon the bar. We had been
unavoidably detained until late in the afternoon,
though the sun went down in clouds before we
had accomplished half our journey, yet we had
beautiful starlight, and reached our destina-
ton, without inconvenience or accident. Our
boat was small, but an excellent sailer; she sat
like swan upon the water, and like the bird
whose name she bore, she would skim swiftly
along from wave to wave, now dancing on their
spray plumed crests, and now sinking graceful
ly into the intervening troughs 1t was not un-
til the afternoon of the next day, that we were
H. % nur cfa xNor ANYTHING
but fattering--the frost of the preceding night
had melted but not dried, and the moisture
stood in large drops all over the deck and seats,
while in the folds and creases of the sail, the
thick gray frost might still be seen. The sky
was lowering, the lake looked dark and sullen,
and everything seemed cold, bleak and comfort
less. But the wind was easterly, and thinking
that we should only wal: longer to fare worse,
we set our faces homeward.
Our little boat glided noiseessly forth into
the dark still water, but soon she caught the
breeze and the foam at her Prov, and the loud
gurgng of the water from her rudder promis-
ed us speedy passage; we lay along the shore
watching with quiet satisfaction, point after
point as it gradually receded, and calculating
the time of our arrival. At length the wind
began to slacken and in hopes of getting more,
we stood away from under the bluffs, but it
would not do the merry music at our stern
subsidized into a low tinkling ripple, the sails
would fall away and fill again, and now scarce a
faint eddy on the water showed that we moved
at all. Had we not foolishly left our oars, we
might have pulled ashore and towed along the
beach; we were half mile from land and not
even paddle by which to move towards it, and
thus we sat hour after hour, as it seemed to me
while night was rapidly closing in around us,
waiting with i'll concealed Impotence for a
breath of air. There is something animating
in real danger-something that rouses the mind
to a conscious superiority or nerves it to strug-
gle to the last against impending fate; but this
dull boding anxiety, who can bear? Our minds
like our half chilled bodies seemed to shrink |
within themselves as each was busted with his
own impatient thoughts.
The shore was lined with low barren sand
hills, sprinkled here and there with leafess
shrubs behind which rose gloomy forest of
pine and hemlock. Not ripple broke the glas-
sy surface of the lake, but the long smooth
swels rolled laziy along tapping our idle sails
and shaking about the bilge-water in the bottom
of the boat. All else was silent as the grave, no
living thing was in sight, not even white sail
in the dim distance, not solitary Gull perched
on the swinging swells or " winnowing the air"
with its long slender wings. The clouds which
had all along been cold and gloomy, soon gath
cred thicker and thicker, narrowing in with their
dull leaden canopy the already limited horizon.
Suddenly we were startled by harsh crashing
sound, and looking up we saw a long white
breaker run combing across a shallow bar be-
tween us and the shore, another and another
followed and then all was still again. A slight
puff lifted our fly from the mast the sails filled
on one side and then on the other and at length
q strong breeze came ripping over the water
directly ahead. But our little Gull was a true
bird of the sea, and give her but the wind and
she cared little from what quarter it came she
opened her white wings and shot onward like
an arrow, almost in the winds eye; we had
made few stretches, the breeze all the time rap
idly freshening, when it became so rough that
we could no longer lie so near the wind, there
fore resolvad tn ctop1 ont faw rpiloc into tba