Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-05-24

4 I,
and disappearing with the heaye
| / uttered cry of anguish, / clasped my
hands and lifted them TO God, and looked up
| to him. I was for kicking OFF my boots and
| plunging into the water-but, mad as / was,
/ was not so mad as that; and mad should
have been to attempt it, for could not swim
twenty strokes; and had been the stoutest
swimmer that ever breasted the salt spray,
the cold must speedily put an end TO my mis-
| cry.
The horror that this white and frightful
scene of desolation had at the beginning filed
me with, was renewed with such violence
when saw that my boat was lost, and was
to be prisoner on the death haunted waste,
| that fell down in a sort of swoon, like one
partly stunned; and had any person come
along and seen me he would have thought
me as dead as the body ON the hill, or the
| corpse that kept its dismal lookout from the
deck of the schooner.
My senses presently returning, / got up,
and the rock upon which stood being level,
l fell to pacing it, with my hands locked be-
hind me, my head sunk, lost in thought.
| By this time the boat was out of sight. l
looked and looked, but she was gone Then
came my good angel to my help, and put
some courage into me. "After all, !" thought /,
sswhat do dreadl Deathl-it can but come to
that 1t is not long ago that Capt Rosy
cried to me: "A man can die but once. He'll
not perish the quicker for contemplating his
end with a stout heart He that SO spoke is
dead. The worst is over for him. Were he
babe resting upon his mothers breast he
could not sleep more soundly, be more ten
derby lulled, nor be freer from such anguish
as now afflicts me, who clings to life as If this
this l cried looking around me, ''were a
paradise OF warmth and beauty must be a
man, ask God for courage to meet whatever
may betide, and stoutly endure what cannot
be evaded.n
My mind went to the schooner, yet felt
an extraordinary recoil within me when
thought of seeking an asylum in her had
the figure of her before my fancy, viewed the
form of the man on her deck and the idea of
penetrating her dark interior, and seeking
shelter in facric that time and frost and
death had wrought into black mystery, was
dreadful to me.
1t must be done, nevertheless, thought /;
shall certainly perish from exposure if linger
here; besides how do l know but that NAV
discover some means of escaping from that
ship? Assuredly there was plenty of material
in her for the building of boat, if could
meet with tools. Or, possibly, l might find a
boat under hatches for it was common for
vessels of her class and in her time to stow
their pinnaccs in the hold, and when the
necessity for using them arose to hoist them
out and tow them astern. These reflections
somewhat heartened me, and turned my
back upon the clamorous ocean and started
to ascend tho slope once more.
Ihelped myself along with the oar, and
presently arrived at the brink of the SLOPE in
whose hollow lay the ship as in n cup. The
wind made noisy bowling i'll her rigging;
but the tackling was frozen SO iron hard that
not rope stirred, and the ytlne at the mast
head was as motionless as any of the adjacent
steeples or pillars Of ice. My heart was dis
mayed again by the figure of man. He was
more dreadful than the other because of the
size to which the frozen snow upon his head,
trunk and limbs had swelled him; and the
half rise of his face was particularly start
ling, as if he we're in the very act of running
his gaze softly upward. That he should have
died in that easy leaning posture was strange;
however, | supposed, and no doubt rightly,
that he had been seized with sGGden faint
ness and had leaned upon the rail and so ex-
pired. The cold would quickly make him
rigid and likewise preserve him, and thus he
~
ice of the cliffs, for years and yearsl
A wild and dreadful thing for one in my
condition to light on, and DO forced to think
Oft
My heart, as have said, sank in me again
at the sight of him, and fear. and awe, and
superstition so worked upon my spirits that
stood irresolute, and would have gone back
had there been any place to return to.
MIR off nd ffa
oar, started on the descent
The depth was not great, nor the declivity
sharp; but the surface was formed of blocks
of ice, like the collections of big stones you
sometimes encounter on the sides of noun
tains near the base; and | had again and
again to fetch a compass so as to gain
smaller block down which to drop, till was
close to the vessel, and here the snow had
piled and frozen into a smooth face.
The ship lay with list or inclination to
larboard / had come down to her on her
starboard side. She had small channels with
long plates; but her list on my side hove
them somewhat high, beyond my reach, and
perceived that to get aboard must seek an
entrance on the larboard hand This was not
hard to arrive at; indeed, l had but to walk
round her under her bows. She was SO coated
L
timbers, and was therefore unable to guess at
the condition of the hull She had something
of the look Of the barco-longos of half a CEN
fury ago-that is, half century ago from
the date of my adventure; but that which, in
sober truth, a man would have taken her to
be was a vessel formed of snow, spared and
rugged with glassllke, frosted ice-the artistic
caprice of the genius or SIP rit of this white
an mol pbol ~ bn 70 on
hooking illusion, had fashioned the figure of
man to stand ON deck with a. human face
toughened into an idle, eternal contempla-
ton.
climbed without difficulty into the fore
chains, the snow being SO hard that my feet
and hands made not the least impression on
it, and somewhat warily-feeling the govern
ment Of peculiar awe, mounting into sort
of terror, understood awhile pecring over
the rail of the bulwarks; then entered the
ship. l ran my eyes swiftly here and there,
for indeed did not know what might steal
or leap into view Let it be remembered
that l was a sailor, with the superstitious
feelings OF my calling in me, and though do
not know that actually believed in ghosts
and apparitions and specters, yet l felt as
if ALPHABETICALLY upon the deck of this
silent ship, rendered spirit like by the grave
of ice in which she lay, and by tho long ycars
las l could not doubt during which SD had
thus rested. Hence, when | slipped OF, The
bulwark on to the deck and viewed the
CHASTITY, white, lonely scene, felt for the
moment as if this strange discovery of mine
was not to be exhausted of its wonders and
terrors by tho mere existence of the ship-ih
other words that must expect something of
the supernatural to enter into this icy sepul-
cher, and be prepared for sights more mar
velous and terrifying than frozen corpses.
Presently, getting the better Of my pertur
baton, walked oft, and stepping on to the
poop deck, fell to an examination Of the COM
panion or covering of tho after hatch, which,
as have elsewhere said, was covered with
snow.
Continued.
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Syrup Of Figs
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