“While Brock was making these calculations, a rush horse collar covered with old netting floated close to him; he laid hold of it, and getting his knife out, he stripped off the net-work, and putting his left arm through, was supported until he had cut the waist band of his petticoat trousers which then fell off:  his striped frock, waistcoat and neckcloth, were also similarly got rid of, but he dared not try to free himself of his oiled trousers, drawers, or shirt, fearing that his legs might become entangled in the attempt; he therefore returned his knife into the pocket of his trousers, and put the collar over his head, which, although it assisted in keeping him above water, retarded his swimming; and after a few moments’ thinking what was best to be done, he determined to abandon it.  He now, to his great surprise, perceived one of his messmates swimming ahead of him; but he did not hail him.  The roaring of the hurricane was past; the cries of drowning men were no longer heard; the moonbeams were casting their silvery light over the smooth surface of the deep, calm and silent as the grave over which he floated, and into which he saw this last of his companions descend without a struggle or a cry, as he approached within twenty yards of him.  Yes, he beheld the last of his brave crew die beside him; and now he was alone in the cold silence of night, more awful than the strife of the elements which had preceded.  Perhaps at this time something might warn him that he too would soon be mingled with the dead; but if such thoughts did intrude, they were but for a moment; and again his mental energies, joined with his lion heart and bodily prowess, cast away all fear, and he reckoned the remotest possible chances of deliverance, applying the means,

  “‘Courage and Hope both teaching him the practice.’

“Up to this time, Winterton Light had served instead of a land-mark to direct his course; but the tide had now carried him out of sight of it, and in its stead ‘a bright star stood over where’ his hopes of safety rested.  With his eyes steadfastly fixed upon it, he continued swimming on, calculating the time when the tide would turn.  But his trials were not yet past.  As if to prove the strength of human fortitude, the sky became suddenly overclouded, and ‘darkness was upon the face of the deep.’  He no longer knew his course, and he confessed, that for a moment he was afraid; yet he felt, that ’fear is but the betraying of the succors which reason offereth,’ and that which roused him to further exertion, would have sealed the fate of almost any other human being.  A sudden short cracking peal of thunder burst in stunning loudness just over his head, and the forked and flashing lightning at brief intervals threw its vivid fires around him.  This, too, in its turn passed away, and left the sea once more calm and unruffled:  the moon (nearly full) again threw a more brilliant light upon the waters, which the storm had gone over without waking from their