“I made a cruise against the Barbary states, when a lad; and we had business that took us to the northern shore.”

“Ay!  ’Tis your northern shore, I mean!  There is not a foot of it all, from the rock at the entrance to the Fare of Messina, that eye of mine hath not seen.  No want of look-outs and land-marks in that quarter!  Here we are close aboard of America, which lies some eight or ten leagues there-away to the northward of us, and some forty astern; and yet, if it were not for our departure, with the color of the water, and a knowledge of the soundings, one might believe himself in the middle of the Atlantic.  Many a good ship plumps upon America before she knows where she is going; while in yon sea, you may run for a mountain, with its side in full view, four-and-twenty hours on a stretch, before you see the town at its foot.”

“Nature has compensated for the difference, in defending the approach to this coast, by the Gulf Stream, with its floating weeds and different temperature; while the lead may feel its way in the darkest night, for no roof of a house is more gradual than the ascent of this shore, from a hundred fathoms to a sandy beach.”

“I said many a good ship, Captain Ludlow, and not good navigator.—­No—­no—­your thorough-bred knows the difference between green water and blue, as well as between a hand-lead and the deep-sea.  But I remember to have missed an observation, once, when running for Genoa, before a mistrail.  There was a likelihood of making our land-fall in the night, and the greater the need of knowing the ship’s position.  I have often thought, Sir, that the ocean was like human life,—­a blind track for all that is ahead, and none of the clearest as respects that which has been passed over.  Many a man runs headlong to his own destruction, and many a ship steers for a reef under a press of canvas.  To-morrow is a fog, into which none of us can see; and even the present time is little better than thick weather, into which we look without getting much information.  Well, as I was observing, here lay our course, with the wind as near aft as need be, blowing much as at present; for your French mistrail has a family likeness to the American norther.  We had the main-top-gallant-sail set, without studding-sails, for we began to think of the deep bight in which Genoa is stowed, and the sun had dipped more than an hour.  As our good fortune would have it, clouds and mistrails do not agree long, and we got a clear horizon.  Here lay a mountain of snow, northerly, a little west, and there lay another, southerly with easting.  The best ship in Queen Anne’s navy could not have fetched either in a day’s run, and yet there we saw them, as plainly as if anchored under their lee!  A look at the chart soon gave us an insight into our situation.  The first were the Alps, as they call them, being as I suppose the French for apes, of which there are no doubt plenty in those regions; and the other were the highlands of Corsica, both being as white, in midsummer, as the hair of a man of fourscore.  You see, Sir, we had only to set the two, by compass, to know, within a league or two, where we were.  So we ran till midnight, and hove-to; and in the morning we took the light to feel for our haven——­”