Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/243

Rh be either worthy of observation or amusing; they may be thus briefly related: an uninterrupted series of most unfavourable weather conspired try our patience; for nine successive days, it blew with the greatest violence, and without intermission, (often attended with heavy rain) directly in opposition to us, by which we were driven upwards of three hundred miles, not only out of our course, but into the horribly agitated Atlantic Ocean.

With a delight beyond the power of words to express, we at day-break, saw the north end of Ireland; the wind blowing a gale prevented our ascertaining with correctness, what part it was; consequently we kept sailing on and off with great caution, to avert the perils attendant on a stormy night, and the dangers of the coast.

Finding it impossible to keep our course, on account of the adverse wind, and the extreme violence with which it blew, we endeavoured, towards dark, to seek shelter under the lee of Rachlin Island, very thick weather having set in.

The light of the day appearing, we endeavoured to proceed on our course, though the fog was so thick, that we could not see three hundred yards from the ship. At six o'clock the curtain of this immense vapour was withdrawn, and unfolded the lofty promontory of Fair Head, so beautifully distinguished by the noble basaltic columns that adorn its brow, and render it one of