We shut the
companion-door to keep it from descending there, and paced the deck
and discoursed upon this disagreeable vapour bath, its cause, its
effects on the constitution, and so on.
"It does not penetrate far into the country," said the doctor, "and is
by no means unhealthy--as it is of a different character altogether
from the land fog. As an illustration however of its density, and of
the short distance it rises from the water, I will tell you a
circumstance to which I was an eyewitness. I was on the citadel hill
at Halifax once, and saw the points of the masts of a mail-steamer
above the fog, as she was proceeding up the harbour, and I waited
there to ascertain if she could possibly escape George's Island, which
lay directly in her track, but which it was manifest her pilot could
not discern from the deck. In a few moments she was stationary. All
this I could plainly perceive, although the hull of the vessel was
invisible. Some idea may be formed of the obscurity occasioned by the
fog, from the absurd stories that were waggishly put abroad at the
time of the accident. It was gravely asserted that the first notice
the sentinel had of her approach, was a poke in the side from her
jibboom, which knocked him over into the moat and broke two of his
ribs, and it was also maintained with equal truth that when she came
to the wharf it was found she had brought away a small brass gun on
her bowsprit, into which she had thrust it like the long trunk of an
elephant.
Pages:
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303