Chapter 14

HOW TO STEER SMALL--HOW TO RUN THE GAUNTLET WITH A SHIP--HOW TO GO
CLEAR--A NEW-FASHIONED SCREW--DOCK, AND CERTAIN MILE-STONES.

Captain Poke no longer deliberated about the course we were to
steer. With his pumpkin for a chart, his instinct for an
observation, and his nose for a compass, the sturdy sealer stood
boldly to the southward; or, at least, he ran dead before a stiff
gale, which, as he more than once affirmed, was as true a norther as
if bred and born in the Canadas.

After coursing over the billows at a tremendous rate for a day and a
night, the captain appeared on deck, with a face of unusual meaning,
and a mind loaded with its own reflections, as was proved by his
winking knowingly whenever he delivered himself of a sentiment; a
habit that he had most probably contracted, in early youth, at
Stunin'tun, for it seemed to be quite as inveterate as it was
thoroughbred.

"We shall soon know, Sir John," he observed, hitching the sea-lion
skin into symmetry, "whether it is sink or swim!"

"Pray explain yourself, Mr. Poke," cried I, in a little alarm. "If
anything serious is to happen, you are bound to give timely notice."

"Death is always untimely to some critturs, Sir John."

"Am I to understand, sir, that you mean to cast away the ship?"

"Not if I can help it, Sir John; but a craft that is foreordained to
be a wrack, will be a wrack, in spite of reefing and bracing. Look
ahead, you Dick Lion--ay, there you have it!"

There we had it, sure enough! I can only compare the scene which now
met my eyes, to a sudden view of the range of the Oberland Alps,
when the spectator is unexpectedly placed on the verge of the
precipice of the Weissenstein. There he would see before him a
boundless barrier of glittering ice, broken into the glorious and
fantastic forms of pinnacles, walls, and valleys; while here, we saw
all that was sublime in such a view heightened by the fearful action
of the boisterous ocean, which beat upon the impassable boundary in
ceaseless violence.

"Good God! Captain Poke," I exclaimed, the instant I caught a
glimpse of the formidable danger that menaced us, "you surely do not
mean to continue madly on, with such a warning of the consequences
in plain view?"

"What would you have, Sir John? Leaphigh lies on the t'other side of
these ice-islands!"

"But you need not run the ship against them--why not go round them?"

"Because they go round the 'arth, in this latitude. Now is the time
to speak, Sir John. If we are bound to Leaphigh, we have the choice
of three pretty desperate chances; to go through, to go under, or to