The Hawaiian gazette., 1869-03-24

the telescope to the mate, after long. steady
look; land he seems frozen hard and fast TO
the side of the iceberg"
The iceberg had been In sight since the
weather cleared at midnight, when it looked
like some high. rocky headland, except that,
BY watching the bright stars behind it, We
could see its gigantic outlines swaying sol
emily and majestically up and down. There
was something sublimely grand in the slow,
stately movement Of such 4 mass. There il
foated, large enough, had it been land, TO
have been the dwelling place of hundreds of
human beings. The lower part was Of so
deep purple as TO look almost black, but
higher up it shaded off 70 bright azure, then
to a light pale green, while on its lofty sum-
nit were long and slender spires, and pin
nacles, and. pieces Of thin transparent ice,
worked into all manner of fantastic forms,
and either of crystal whiteness, or tinted
with beautiful pale pink.
There were bays and promontories, caves
and grottoes, hills and dells. with every va
riety of light and shade. The island was
almost equally divided by great valley run
ming through its centre. This was half filed
with snow, which, thawing slowly In the
sun, formed the source of waterfall, at q
height so great that it was blown and scat
tered into fine rain before II reached the sea.
Around its base-on which the sea was
breaking witha noise less booming and more
musical than when il dashed on the solid
shore-was broad band of frozen spray,
which, glittering in the sunshine, looked
Ike the silver setting of an enormous sap
phire.
Not far from the top, and on the side near
est to US, was u vast, smooth, CLASSY plane,
inclinlng steeply towards the sea, and ter
minating abruptly in a tremendous overhang-
| ing precipice In the very centre of this
plane, those among us who had good eyes
could see small black spot. 1t was at this
the captain had been peering through his
glass when he said, d" it is man."
Every glass in the ship was in requisition,
and every eye strained towards one point
The excitement became almost frantic, when
one of the watchers suddenly exclaimed that
he saw the man move his head
We approaehed-so near that the plateau
above and its dread object were at last hid
den from view by the brink Of the precipice
itself, which seemed about to roll over and
crush US. We sailed along the side, fire.
quently lying-to TO explore each nook and
corner as We passed. The further end of the
island, when We rounded it, presented quite
a new feature; the base was Slapped away
and undermined for about half mile, by a
succession of low, cavernous hollows, ex-
tending inward further than We could see,
while the sea rushing in and out tumultu-
ously, made the pent-up air within howl and
whistle like hurricane. Altering our course
again, we steered almost due west under the
southern side, and where its vast shadow
spread out far and wide over the ocean. 1t
now looked even grander, more fear-inspir-
ing, than before, with the sun beaming on
its rugged crest, or shining through the thin
ner parts, and showing the prismatic colors
of the rainbow. The form of the ice-island
was that of an irregular triangle, and in five
hours We had sailed completely around it.
But there was no single point at which any
boat eyer built could have landed, even had
it been dead calm, and the sea as still as
milipond, much less in such a heavy surf as
was then foaming and dreaming all around
ii. No sign of living thing was seen, except
ing one great sleepy seal, that had erept into
a hole just above watermark, and lay there
as if he was in comfortable quarters. No
sign OF boat, or spar, or wreck Ii was q
picture of utter desolation.
We hove TO again at the nearest point from
which the man on the iceberg could be seen.
he lay on his back, with one arm folded in
an unusual manner, under his head, the
whole attitude one OF repose; indeed, had il
not been for the marbly look of his face and
hands, We could have iancied he was sleeping
soundly. He was clothed as one of the best
class of seamen, in a rough blue pilot cloth,
with large horn-buttons; he had no hat, and
BY his side lay small boathook, to which
was tied a strip of red wooden stuff, appa-
rently piece of the same which he wore
around his neck This, no doubt, the poor
fellow had intended on the heights as sig
nal. In such a thin, clear atmosphere, with
the aid of powerful telescope, even his
features might be plainly traced, and his iron
gray hair was seen moving in the wind.
The second mate stoutly declared that he
recognized the mamie was sure of it-an
old ehum and shipmate of his, with whom
he had sailed many long voyage, and some
part of whose wild, varied history he told us
the next evening. What seemed TO convince
him more than anything was the peculiar
way in which the dead mans arm was stow
ed away under his head-his old shipmate
always slept SO, even in his hammock.
Numerous and strange were the eonjectures
and remarks made by officers and men. Who,
and what was he How long had he been
there; How did he get there? The general
conclusion was, that he was one of the crew
of some vessel wrecked upon the iceberg
itself of which no yestige remained.
"Yes, like enough said one sailor; "she
run into the ice in the dark, and went down
like stone, same way as we might have
done any time these last six weeks"
"Perhaps he was aloft when she struck,
and got pitched up where he is now"
As like to be pitched into the moon"
rejoined another. "Why, that 'ere precipice
is three times as high as the tallest mast ever
rigged.n
"Perhaps, now" said third, "it's some
cruel skipper, who's been hazing and i'll
treating his crew till they couldn't bear with
it any longer, and was drove to mntiny, and
put him ashore there to die all alone by him
self so that they should not have his blood
upon their hands; or, may be, he was muir
derer"
"Ah, Bill" growled out previous speak
er, "you've always got good word to say
for every one, you have"
1t was very old man who spoke next,
one who was looked up TO as great authority
taeiturn and would never enter into an argu-
ment. He quietly deposited his quid in his
hat; and, as this was always done prepare
tory to his making a speech, his shipmates |
waited in silence for him to begin.
That there ice island,'' be said twas not |
launched yesterday, nor yet last year, nor the |
year before, perhaps; and, by the looks of |
him, he's been for a pretty long cruise, in 1
warm latitude-last summer maybe-and /
then come back home for winter. Now, it's |
just there, l expect, that piece was broken
off and driffed away; and, calculate, twas /
lower and more shelving off-not so steep |
and rocky like as it is now. Twas there /
that poor fellow was cast ashore from his /
ship or boat. He was trying to make his |
way to the heights to take look and hoist /
signal, when be lay down and went to sleep /
and never woke again; only, where be is |
now, you see, it must have been covered 4
with snow then, or he couldn't have kept |
his footing"
Having said this much, he replaced the quid |
in his mouth and spoke no more. There was
no earthly use of waiting longer, and yet the |
captain seemed 10th to give the order to fill |
and bear away.
" If the poor fellow had spark of life in
him he would have moved before this, for
it's six or seven hours since we first saw him.
But If he did move. it would only be to slide
down over the precipice, for no living thing