Page:Loss of the Comet steam-boat on her passage from Inverness to Glasgow, on Friday the 21st October, 1825.pdf/16

 names of the sufferers; and a picture unprecedented agitation and bustle soon exhibited. On Saturday the scene was still more distressing. The melancholy news had had time to spread, and persons flocked from all quarters in search of beloved relatives. Some were not kept long suspense. Their hopes were at once blasted by the awful spectacle of the remains those whom they were but ill prepared  behold in the arms of death. Others, uncertain whether the persons for whom safety they trembled were on board the Comet, or coming by another steam-boat which was expected to arrive that day, experienced in all its agony, the “hope that keeps alive despair.” A gentleman, who visited Gourock on Saturday, gave the following affecting account of what he beheld—

"We left Broomielaw at ten o'clock. A. M., and reached Gourock at one. On the passage a young man informed me that he was proceeding thither to ascertain the fate of brother and sister, the former of whom was on his way to complete his studies at college. On arriving at Kempoch Point, the first object this person recognised was his sister's body, which had just been landed from one of the boats, and presented the corpse of a fine young woman. A bible and some money were taken from her pocket. At this time four