Identifier: lettersfromhighl00duff (find matches)
Title: Letters from high latitudes : being some account of a voyage, in 1856, in the schooner yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Blackwood, Marquis of, 1826-1902
Subjects: Arctic regions Iceland -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : J. Murray
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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the teeth of a whole gale ofwind; at last, about nine oclock in the morning,—but twoshort hours before the moment at which it had been agreedwe should bear up, and abandon the attempt,—we came upwith a long low point of ice, that had stretched further tothe Westward than any we had yet doubled ; and there,beyond, lay an open sea !—open not only to the Northwardand Westward, but also to the Eastward ! You can ima-gine my excitement. Turn the hands up, Mr. Wyse !,; Bout ship ! Down with the helm ! Helm a-lee ! Up comes the schooners head to the wind, the sails flap-ping with the noise of thunder—blocks rattling against thedeck, as if they wanted to knock their brains out —ropesdancing about in galvanised coils, like mad serpents—andeverything to an inexperienced eye in inextricable confusion;till gradually she pays off on the other tack—the sails stiffeninto deal-boards—the staysail sheet is let go—and heelingover on the opposite side, again she darts forward over the
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Y- HU HIa o JO 5! aa XL) THE SEVEN ICE-HILLS; 1F5 sea like an arrow from the bow. Stand by to make sail! Out all reefs ! I could have carried sail to sink a man-of-war !—and away the little ship went, playing leapfrogover the heavy seas, and staggering under her canvas, as ifgiddy with the same joyful excitement which made my ownheart thump so loudly. In another hour the sun came out, the fog cleared away,and about noon—up again, above the horizon, grow thepale lilac peaks, warming into a rosier tint as we approach.Ice still stretches toward the land on the starboard side ;but we dont care for it now—the schooners head is point-ing E. and by S. At one oclock we sight AmsterdamIsland, about thirty miles on the port bow; then came the seven ice-hills —as seven enormous glaciers are called—that roll into the sea between lofty ridges of gneiss andmica slate, a little to the northward of Prince CharlessForeland. Clearer and more defined grows the outline ofthe mountains, some com

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