Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-04-01

hard that not q rope stirred, and the vane
at the masthead was as moti0nless SIS any
Of the adjacent steeples or pillars OF ice.
Ny heart was dismayed again by the figure
Of q man. He was more dreadful than the
other because Of the s'za to which the
frozen snow upon his head, trunk and
limbs had swelied him; and the half rise
Of his face was particularly startling, as II
he were in the very act of running his gaze
softly upward. That he should have died
in that easy leaning posture was strange;
however, l supposed, aud no doubt right
~, that he had been seized with q sudden
iaintness and had leaned upon the rail aud
so expired. The cold would quickly make
him rigid and likewise preserve him, and
thus he might have been leaning, contem-
plating the ice of the cliffs, for years and
years!
A wild and dreadful thing for one in my
condition to light on, and be forced TO
think of!
My heart, as l have said, sank in me
again at the sight Of him, and fear, and
awe, and superstition so worked upon my
spirits that l stood irresclute and would
have gone back had there been any place
to return to. i plucked up after a little,
and gripping the oar, / started on the de-
scent.
The depth was not great, nor the declev-
ity sharp; but the surface was formed OF
blocks OF ice, like the collections of big
stones you sometimes encounter on the
sides Of mountains near the base; and l
had again and again 10 fetch q compass 30
- .-nIIo- LlooI H., -hiol, IN
drop. till / was close TO the vessel, and
here the snow had piled and frozen into q
smooth face.
The ship lay with q list or inclination to
laIboard. / had come down 10 her on her
starbOard side. She had small channels
with long plates; but her list on my side
hove them somewhat high, beyond my
reaco, and / perceived that to get aboard |
must seek an entrances on tte larboard
hand. This YVES not hard to arrive at; in
deed, l had but to walk round her under
her DO VS.. She was So coated with hard
snow that ] could see nothing of her tim
bers, aad was therefore unable TO guess a.
the condition of the hill. She had ome
thing of the look of the harco-longOs VI half
g century ago-thati is, half a century from
the date of my adventure, bat that, which,
in sober truth, O man woul6 have taken
her to be was q vessel formed OF snow,
spared and rugged with glassEke, frosted
ice-ths artistic caprice Of the genius or
spirit of this white and melancholy scene,
VINO, 10 complete the mocking Illusion, had
fashioned the figure of a man on deck with
u human face toughened into an idle,
eternal contemplation.
l climbed without difficulty into the
~ferechains, the snow being so hard that my
feet and hands made not the least imprca-
sion on it, and somewhat warily-feeling
the government of a peculiar awe, mount
ing into a sort Of terror, Understood
awhile peering over the rail Of the bull
warks; then entered the ship. ] ran my
Eyes swiftly here and there, for indeed l
did not know what might steal Cr leap into
view. Let it be remembered that l was q
sailor, with the super,titious feelings Of
my calling in me, and though | DO not
know that / actually believed in ghosts
and ASPIRATIONS and spec!res, yet | felt Gs
ii ALPHABETICALLY upon the
deck Of this silent ship rem
dered spirit-like by the grave Of ice
in which she lay, and by the long years
(as | could not doubt during which she
has thus rested. Hence, when | slipped
of the bulwark on to the deck and viewed
the CHASTITY, white, lonely scene, l felt for
the moment as if this straugs discovery of
mine was not to be exhausted Of its won
ders and terIoTs by the mere existence OF
the ship-ir other words, that l must K
pect something of the supernatural to en-
ter into this icy sepulcher, and be prepared
for sights more marvellous and terrifying
than frozen corpseE.
Presently, getting the better Of my per-
turbation, walked aft, aud stepping on to
the poop deck, fell 10 an examination Of
the companion or covering of the after
hatch, which, as have elsewhere said,
was covered with enow.