96 Snapshots from the North Pacipe.

“ Away from the wharf we proudly sailed, for the sea
was smooth in the inner harbour. One hour brought us
face to face with a strong northerly wind and swell. The
old tub made her obeisance to the sea with low curtsies, but
Neptune was implacable. We pitched, and kept pitching
into the sea, but the longer it lasted the fiercer the battle,
and the worse we fared. The sun was setting and we were
still struggling. The elements were winning; we were
drifting astern after all our efforts. ‘About ship!’ was
the word. Look out everybody! Won’t she roll in the
trough of the sea! So she did, to the clatter of crockery
and the smashing of the companion rails by the shifting
of the deck load. Back again to the outer harbour of Metla-
katla, where, three miles further in, blinked the lights, the
only sign of the town, for darkness had fallen on us. * Off came
some canoes, and in them returned the Indian passengers,
who had had enough pitching and rolling for the year.
Nearly all of them had been sea-sick.

“Before daylight next morning we weighed anchor and
again strove to proceed to Kincolith, but the gale would not
suffer us for it had increased in violence. Once more we
put aboutship and headed for Queen Charlotte’s Island.
What a dismal day we had! The wind abeam enabled us
to carry a little sail to steady the ship, but with her heavy
tophamper she so rocked in the cradle of the deep that some
feared the creaking old thing would roll too far over. No
meal could be served that day. I jammed myself in a recess
of the pantry and managed to drink a basin of soup and eat
a chunk of bread. Then I robbed some unoccupied berths of
their pillows, and with them contrived in my own berth a
sleepy hollow, where once made snug, I spent the rest of
the day reading, admiring the all-round correction of
‘Working Substitutes,’ by his Grace of Canterbury, and the
doctrinal tracery of the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, im
their.recent charges.

“Tt was quite dark before we moored at Skidegate, a
distance of rather more than 100 miles from Metlakatla.